Abuse and Neglect – do we love animals more? The Sequel.

Back in June I wrote a blog post comparing the public response to two current news stories – the first about Winterbourne View, the scene of institutional abuse of people with learning disabilities, and the second about two Metropolitan Police dogs who suffocated when their handler left them for too long in a vehicle. These stories were both equally horrific, but the public response to the animal cruelty was far greater than to the abuse of people with learning disabilities.

Tonight when I checked the BBC news site I was appalled to see the headline story of a local woman who had abused a kitten. This story was reported this evening and has so far (at 21.30pm) been shared 2800 times.

The news story I was looking for was about a new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that has found home care for older people is so bad at times it is breaching their human rights. This story was the headline this morning, was reported on the site just after 8am and over 12 hours later has been shared 1300 times.

As I argued back in June, both of these situations are horrific. I’m not advocating that abusing humans is far worse or far better than abusing animals, I’m just surprised at our reaction to it. Still surprised.

Signposting

RSPCA Cruelty Line 0300 1234 999

NSPCC HelpLine 0800 800 5000 and ChildLine 0800 1111

Action on Elder Abuse Helpline 0808 808 8141

If you are concerned about a vulnerable person (adult or child) suffering abuse and don’t know what to do about it contact 999 if it is an emergency or a crime or contact your local council or police force for other concerns. Usually if you Google ‘reporting adult abuse’ and ‘the area where you live’ you will usually find what to do.

Abuse and Neglect – or do we love animals more?

When I got home from work tonight I checked the BBC News website as I’m prone to do. One of the tragic headlines that caught my eye was about two MET Police Dogs suffocating in an unventilated vehicle. This report describes an avoidable situation, whether a simple accident or careless neglect, it is a really sad story and one that I couldn’t read without feeling angry and sad for both the animals and the people involved. I believe this story went live on the BBC Website at 7pm today (27 June 2011), by the time of writing (11pm) the article has been shared over 2000 times. Quite rightly too, it is sad and newsworthy, and preventable, so sharing the message makes sense.

 

Now, let me rewind to four weeks ago when a BBC Panorama reported on serious institutional abuse against people with learning disabilities in Winterbourne View – I blogged about it here. This hour long documentary reported on hideous treatment of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. I think you’d struggle to watch it, or read the news item describing it, and not feel incredibly angry or sad.

This story went live on the BBC Website mid morning on the 1 June 2011, by the time of writing (27 June) the article has been shared almost 14,000 times. Again I’d expect as much, it is *also* sad and newsworthy, and *also* preventable, so sharing the message makes sense.

So, what’s the point?

I’m sure most of you will have worked out where I’m going with this. The story about animal cruelty was shared 2153 times in 3.5 hours, the adult abuse story was shared seven times as much – but in four weeks. Now I appreciate that the rate of sharing will drop off sharply once the story is removed from the BBC front page, over time, and I’m not claiming this is some scientific observation. That said, I am shocked at the high levels of concern for animal cruelty when viewed in relation to abuse of our fellow humans.

I dug a little deeper with this and checked out the statistics for the RSPCA Cruelty Line. ”On average every 30 seconds someone in England and Wales dials 0300 1234 999 – the RSPCA’s 24-hour cruelty line – for help. We received more than 1.1 million phone calls during 2010″. RSPCA Key Information

The next place I looked was for an equivalent adult abuse line – but no such thing exists. Action on Elder Abuse run a free national helpline for those concerned about abuse of elderly people, but that does not speak to all adult groups. I was unable to find any figures about it’s use.

So desperate to explore my theory that we care more about animals than people, I checked up on stats from NSPCC, I couldn’t find 2010 figures but what follows is the stats about calls made by children to ChildLine (which covers any concerns they have, including abuse) and calls from adults to the Helpline in 2009-10: ”ChildLine counsellors dealt with over 500,000 contacts from children calling about various problems including bullying, sex abuse, violence and mental health issues. Nearly 12,000 allegations of children suffering abuse were passed from the NSPCC Helpline to police of social services” NSPCC Facts and figures about child abuse.

I’d like to conclude by offering the suggestion that we really do love our animals more than our fellow people.

I’m not sure if I believe that, but I think it’s relatively easy to see that we appear to be more appalled by animal cruelty and if not more appalled, more likely to act about it. Whether it’s a self-protection, not wanting to consider the reality situation; or a lack of awareness; or a lack of knowledge about what to do about it, I’m not sure. What I am sure about is that no animal or person should be subjected to abuse or neglect and as a society we should be more appalled and more proactive in preventing it.

Signposting

RSPCA Cruelty Line 0300 1234 999

NSPCC HelpLine 0800 800 5000 and ChildLine 0800 1111

Action on Elder Abuse Helpline 0808 808 8141

If you are concerned about a vulnerable person (adult or child) suffering abuse and don’t know what to do about it contact 999 if it is an emergency or a crime or contact your local council or police force for other concerns. Usually if you Google ‘reporting adult abuse’ and ‘the area where you live’ you will usually find what to do.

When will we learn? #safeguarding lessons

Over a week has passed since the Panorama exposé of practice at Winterbourne View. Run by Castlebeck the facility is described on their own website as “a purpose designed acute service, offering assessment and intervention and support for people with learning disabilities, complex needs and challenging behaviour“. I am not going to go into detail about what the film covered, you can still see the episode here and there have been several excellent blog posts and commentaries published. There has been a lot of outrage, a few apologies, a lot of promises and a lot of anger.

Reflections

What I thought I would just do was offer a few of my reflections on the programme – I’m not claiming these will be original, but they were what stood out for me:

1. Respect and Value As a society how much do we respect people with learning disabilities? What value do we place on their care and support – providing it in a building on the edge of an industrial estate. An industrial estate, seriously, how many of us would like to live on the edge of an industrial estate? I’m not sure what message that sends to the residents/patients/customers and their families and I’m also not sure what message it sends to the staff. If, as a society, we don’t show respect for and value people with learning disabilities, why would we expect the people who are paid the minimum wage to provide their care, to act any differently?

2. Boredom and underload The staff shown in the show were quite simply bored. They had too much time on their hands, they didn’t know how best to engage their residents and so they entertained themselves; as my Gran would say ‘Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings’. Rarely did the staff attempt to meaningfully engage the residents, and when they did they weren’t successful and got little feedback, so nothing would encourage them to persevere.

3. Aspirations The staff shown engaging in abuse at Winterbourne View were not people who aspired to be carers. One of them, Graham, had previously been the kitchen porter, I’m not sure how he came to be working as a carer but he certainly hadn’t applied to Castlebeck with that role in mind. One of the Senior Support Workers, the one referred to as the ‘ring leader’, Wayne, previously worked in a Young Offender Institution and had an ambition to open a tattoo parlour. These people were not people who aspired to be carers, that said they didn’t lack aspiration or ambition, but they were simply not doing a job that interested them. This relates to the earlier point about value, how much value do we place on care work? As a society do we value the work that Graham and Wayne do?

4. Isolation As an assessment facility, many of these residents were miles from their family, friends and support networks. These were not unloved, forgotten individuals though; they were not vulnerable and isolated residents with no support; they had supportive and engaged, loving families. However, the residents at Winterbourne View were kept on a locked ward, their families and friends never had access to where they lived, instead visiting in a visitors room. They were isolated by their situation.

5. Training These staff lacked training and support. They were working with people with complex needs, idiosyncratic communication, and arguably challenging behaviour. They were providing support for all of their needs. A lot of the media backlash has laid blame at the individual’s involved – and yes they should know better – but in amongst the awful behaviour there were attempts to engage with residents.

Wayne, who was so awful at times, was also the one who sat holding Simon’s hand (in the scene were the horrific abuse of Simone was the focus); on another occasion, before snapping and dragging a resident from her bed, he had knocked on the door before entering her room and greeted her with a cheery “morning princess”. In one scene he threatens Simon with flushing his head down the toilet – he has his head suspended above the bowl and as Simon screams his complaints, Wayne offers the reasoning that ‘this is what other people feel like when you give them bear hugs’ – at some level, Wayne’s behaviour could be interpreted as the attempts of a man who knows no better, trying to teach Simon a lesson.

Simon’s learning difficulties, and the difficulties of other residents, mean that they will not learn through tough love, no doubt the approach that Wayne’s parents or superiors took with him, would not work. I’m not so sure that he knows any better way of doing things.

I’m not suggesting that Wayne’s behaviour is forgiveable, but I do think he lacked support to do a better job. Remember this is a man who wants to run his own tattoo parlour, who has worked their for three years, who earns £16k a year, who has no qualifications for the role he performs.

Conclusion 

We know what needs to change. We should have learnt these lessons by now, at least with regards to institutional abuse. There was a reason why long stay hospitals were closed down in the 80s, we know what causes institutional abuse.

Two years ago, research in practice for adults published Safety Matters: developing practice in safeguarding adults - if you click the link you can see extracts from the Practitioner Handbook. This publication was the result of an action research project that I co-facilitated with Bridget Penhale (an academic and Joint Editor of the Journal of Adult Protection – alongside Margaret Flynn who will conduct the SCR for South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board), Paul Bedwell and Stephen Bunford from Essex Safeguarding Adults Board. We looked at the available research evidence, and combined it with practice knowledge about improving safeguarding practice, talking to professionals from across the country about their experiences and learning. The document, while in need of a refresh, still contains lots of information and ideas for practice. One of the checklists contained looks at pointers of institutional abuse, we should have been able to spot this, and prevent it, earlier:

I am delighted at the sense of national outrage in response to Panorama. I would be even more delighted if we could start by looking at the evidence we already have, and trying to use that to improve practice. As a society we have to ask ourselves some fundamental questions about how we value and treat people with learning disabilities and rather than pointing the finger at a few individuals uncovered by a journalist, we should ask ourselves what more or what different we could do.