Tag Archives: autism
Disabled girl ‘lost in the system’ by Birmingham City Council for four years
Birmingham City Council “singularly failed” a disabled child “lost in the system” for more than four years, the Local Government Ombudsman has ruled.
A report said the authority failed to contact the girl’s mother from November 2006 to March 2011 to assess support payments.
It added social workers had not identified the girl’s “complex needs” and left her mother to raise her alone.
The council has agreed to pay £5,000 following the ombudsman’s report.
Patients 'imprisoned' in care homes, report finds
The committee said it was “very concerned by what we heard about the safeguards”
The report highlighted the case of Steven Neary, who has autism and a severe learning difficulty.
Vulnerable adults are being kept virtual prisoners in care homes because of misuse of mental health laws, a House of Lords committee says.
The report expressed serious concerns that safeguards brought in to protect vulnerable patients are actually being used to “oppress” them.
It looked at how reforms passed in 2005 are working, but called for a new system to be drawn up from scratch.
The Ministry of Justice said it welcomed the report.
Royal Caribbean Is Latest Entrant into Autism-Friendly Travel
Autism-friendly travel
Royal Caribbean is riding high on the waves after a leading travel organization distinguished it as the first official autism-friendly cruise line. The announcement is the latest acknowledgement of a growing number of autism-friendly travel offerings industry wide.
“When you think about accessibility on a cruise line, you often think about physical, visual and hearing disabilities,” said Ron Pettit, manager of ADA and Accessibility Compliance for Royal Caribbean International. “But we want to make sure we are offering services to all of our guests. When we noticed a trend a while back with land-based hotels and movie theaters offering more autism-friendly programs, we immediately wondered, ‘well, what can we do about this here?'”
Since then the company has been working to incorporate programs and amenities that follow guidelines provided by Autism on the Seas, the leading travel organization catering to vacationers with autism and other developmental disabilities.
