I urge everyone to sign this.

“I don’t want anyone else to go through what he did”

2,260 people on the autism spectrum or with a learning disability are in mental health hospitals in England. My wonderful son Matthew used to be one of them.

Help reduce these numbers by signing this important petition before it closes on 6 May.

Matthew spent 15 months in an Assessment and Treatment Unit (ATU). I was told this would be somewhere he would be for a short time while the right community support was found for him. But not only did this not happen but his physical and mental health got much, much worse. He thought he was in prison, and all we wanted was to get him home.

I don’t want anyone else to go through what we did.

These places can be completely inappropriate – noisy, bright and unpredictable – leaving autistic people completely overwhelmed and triggering extreme levels of anxiety. This in turn can increase the risk of restraint, seclusion and over-medication.

After campaigning for many months for my son’s safety, a review of his care found that a crisis “could have been predicted and potentially prevented”. There must be other solutions to detaining people indefinitely in mental health hospitals.

Like many of you, I signed the open letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock asking him to end this national scandal.

We need to keep the pressure up on the government to take this issue seriously.

Find out more and follow the hashtag #HumanToo on social media.

We recently received feedback on the Dyspraxia Foundation Youth Manchester Event which Calvin, Renwick and I attended, so we wanted to share it with you.

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Animal therapy and learning disability – what is the relationship?

Therapy animals are being used in interventions aimed at improving children’s memory retention, achieved through both play and responsibility.

Read more

Further insight

• Autistic young people tackle loneliness among peers
• Mental capacity bill amendment reaches final stages – and concerns remain

Catch up

• Number of autistic pupils identified in Scotland’s schools doubles

Keep supporting progress and greater opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has published a report looking at the amount spent on preventative and early intervention mental health support for children in England.

These interventions look to treat problems like anxiety, depression, or eating disorders in their early stages through support provided by school nurses, counsellors, drop-in centres, or online counselling services.

The report

The Children’s Commissioner’s research is the first time any organisation has collected data to show how much is being spent by areas in England on preventative and early intervention mental health support. It reveals that local areas, which included both local authorities and NHS spending, allocated a total of £226 million for such services in 2018/19, just over £14 per child.

The report shows there were wide variations between areas in how much funding is available: the top 25% of local areas spent at least £1.1 million or more, while the bottom 25% spent £180,000 or less. This postcode lottery comes at a time when the Government has made more funding available for children’s mental health nationally as the number of children in need of support and treatment from children’s mental health services has increased over the last decade.

Care home managers barred from approving deprivation of liberty orders under latest Mental Capacity Act plans

The government says it will prevent care home managers from making deprivation of liberty judgments under the reformed Mental Capacity Act currently making its way through parliament. Concerns had been raised by the care sector itself that earlier proposals could have resulted in a conflict of interest among fee-receiving care providers.

Read more

Further insight

• Care worker discovers own artistic talent through supporting people with learning disabilities

Catch up

• “Never mind the b******s – just support me to lead an ordinary life”

Keep supporting progress and greater opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

Amy Pilkington started this petition to Health Minister Matt Hancock

My 13 year old daughter Edie suffers with Irlen Syndrome – a condition that affects how her brain processes the things she sees. It makes words move around on the page when she’s reading and makes her very sensitive to natural light meaning she can’t go outside for long. She needs special coloured lenses to help her live a normal life – but the NHS won’t fund it.

Edie was also previously diagnosed with dyslexia in 2017. Children with dyslexia are entitled to certain support throughout their education – but because Irlens is not recognised by the NHS there is no mandatory support and everything has to be funded by parents.

Calvin, Renwick and I had a great day.
Met really interesting and fun people.

Learning disability support provider launches pioneering easy-read transgender guide

06 March 2019

CMG, a leading provider of support for people with learning disabilities and associated complex needs, has joined forces with charities CHANGE and Choice Support to launch an easy-read Transgender guide, providing support and advice to individuals across the country.

The guide

In the first of its kind, the easy read guide explains to individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism what it means to be transgender; the issues or challenges that may be experienced; and to help them understand their thoughts, feelings, and gender identity. The pioneering booklet enables individuals to be better informed about every day issues that affect people who have or are thinking of transitioning, and incorporated contributions from many people across the many months of its development.

The booklet follows the success of CMG and CHANGE’s previous guide to Keeping Safe Online, aimed at supporting individuals with learning disabilities and other associated complex needs.

The Guide was launched at the national Learning Disability England Conference and is freely available from CMG, Change and Choice Support Websites, as well as accessible via the Supported Loving Network Facebook page and website.

Darren Devine
21 March 2019

MSP Daniel Johnson’s life was a “mess” before he was diagnosed with ADHD six years ago. Now, he tells of his battle to raise awareness of ADHD as the only politician in any UK parliament with a declared diagnosis.

Experiencing symptoms with no diagnosis

At its worst, MSP Daniel Johnson’s untreated attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) left him walking down the street berating himself over his inability to cope with life.

Johnson said he started to scare himself with nervous tics and behaviour that was “on the edge of not really being acceptable in normal, everyday life”. Stressed and depressed, Johnson feels if he had been left untreated he could have ended up suffering a nervous breakdown and splitting from 39-year-old lawyer wife Jackie.

“Fundamentally, my life has been transformed by my diagnosis and the fact I’m on medication.”

In the end, it was the Labour MSP’s wife who first raised the possibility of ADHD when Johnson’s life began to unravel around six years ago. Johnson was running a group of gift, card, and homeware shops in Edinburgh when he remembers feeling “agitated” for much of the time and began falling way behind with basic admin like invoicing.

People with Autism & learning disabilities need appropriate support and care and not be detained in units that cannot appropriately support them

Parents take Mental Capacity Act challenge to High Court

When a child with a learning disability turns 18, parents can find themselves feeling marginalised as social workers take charge of key decision making at best interest meetings. Things could be set to change this week.

 

Read more

Further insight

• Deaths under NHS care: many trusts are implementing national guidance – others must do more

Catch up

• Flyers with learning disabilities may benefit from Special Olympics

Keep supporting progress and greater opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

Eating disorder treatment must offer vegan options, says Royal College of Psychiatrists

Most prescribed medications contain animal-derived products – such as gelatine, lanolin, and lactose – which are often not clearly identifiable on the labelling. This makes it challenging for prescribers who will need to fully explore and understand their patients’ veganism to make sure they are prescribed medication in line with their diet.

 

Find out more

Insights

• “Backdoor policies” denying people with mental illnesses access to ESA
• Government unlikely to meet pledge to end ‘out of area’ mental health treatment next year

Catch up

• Government appoints first ever National Adviser to tackle LGBT health inequalities

Learn | Campaign | Support

Join us at MHT Wales 2019 in Cardiff on May 22 to discuss the latest information and debates around disorders, therapy and children’s mental health.

The theme for World Social Work Day 2019 is Promoting the Importance of Human Relationships. To celebrate, Pavilion Publishing is giving away four prizes of £25 and six months of unlimited access to CareKnowledge and MyCPD to four extraordinary social workers in the UK. Nominate here.

Learn about anxiety, bipolar disorder and other common mental health conditions in our Disorders Explained information hub.

Show your support for what you’ve read today by making a one-off or recurring donation by debit card, credit card or PayPal. It helps us keep the site free from paywalls.

Keep supporting mental health progress.

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From Barney and the Mental Health Today team.

“I’d be astonished if we saw progress”:

Sir Stephen Bubb on the future of transforming care

Darren Devine
12 March 2019

In the wake of the Winterbourne View scandal, charity boss Sir Stephen Bubb authored one of the key reports that urged an end to controversial long-stay hospital care. Here, he tells Darren Devine why the transforming care initiative – designed to move people back into their communities – now seems certain to fall way short of its ambitions.

The philanthropist Samuel Gridley Howe, in the mid-19th century, told of the evils of life in an institution. He wrote of how “all such institutions are unnatural, undesirable and very liable to abuse. We should have as few of them as possible, and those few should be kept as small as possible. The human family is the unit of society.”

Transforming care – a call for change

When Sir Stephen Bubb penned his report ‘Winterbourne View — Time for Change’ in 2014, it was riven through with Howe’s anti-institutional philosophy. He used Howe’s words in the foreword to his groundbreaking report and called them an “essential truth”.

Jamie and Lion gave an excellent presentation today.

Going to give Calvin’s book to the new NAS resource centre in Greenbank school.

Shona Davidson spoke about Challenging behaviour:
Who is challenging whom
Thought provoking.
She is going to be speaking at the North Wales conference on
Fabricated and Induced Illness.

Odd girl out author, Laura James, gave an extremely interesting talk on her story.

The final speaker, Jessie Hewitson, was also like the previous speakers, inspirational.

Sue and I privileged to have attended.