Somerset Autism Care Home Abuse – Homes Profiting from Autism

Having recently finished working for a residential autism specific care home within Somerset in the UK, and being less than impressed with the way privatised autism care can be operated in the wrong hands I felt it was important to remind you, the parents and family, not to swallow everything you're told, now I don’t mean to scare you, but if I could offer you one piece of advice it would be to ask questions, lots of questions. Autism care is now a very profitable business and the residential autism care homes in which your loved ones reside are run by businessmen, not saints.

Businesses exist for the sole purpose of turning a profit.

There are a wide variety of residential homes caring for autism in and around the Somerset area these days, but what happens when care becomes privatized, when care becomes a business, when profits and expansion take priority over the standard of life and care received by the care homes residents.

You entrusted your loved ones unto them, because they’d convinced you that they cared, but the truth is you’ll never know what goes on behind closed doors. This is the truth about life in a residential autism care home in Somerset as I experienced it.

Would you believe that an autism care home that had no heating for over 6 months, a home run by a respected autism specific care home operator could receive 5 star reports from CSCI, despite the fact that the house that was home to seven residents with a variety of challenging conditions had an internal temperature regularly as low as 13C, a home in which the residents breathe could be seen on the air in their own bedrooms at night.

* From a BBC Health Report - 'The recommended temperature for a living room is 21C, recommended temperature for a bedroom is 18C, at 16C your resistance to respiratory diseases is severely weakened and after spending more then two hours at temperatures of 12C you suffer raised blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.'

So as you can see the internal temperature of this Somerset based autism care home was regularly way below a healthy level and only fractionally above what could be considered the fatality level.

* Support worker quote *

"I feel like I'm being paid to protect these guys from everybody; except from those who are probably their greatest threat."

Support Workers made to force residents sign over control of their finances to the company owner and director. I witnessed a scene in which one support worker was screamed at by the company’s owner for refusing to make an autistic resident sign over control of his finances. The resident in question was barely able to sign his own signature, let alone understand what he was signing.

"I'm the owner of the company - Now go and get it signed... RIGHT NOW!"

Screamed that nice friendly well dressed man whose hand you’d shook and who’d made you feel that this was the company that would take good care of your autistic child.

Why?

Because: Businesses exist for the sole purpose of turning a profit.

Question - Would the owner and director of a chain of respected care homes spend over £60,000 on cars and personalised number plates from the operational budget of the care homes for himself and his wife, whilst refusing to replace the run-down vehicle used to transport the service users which had been purchased for approx £5000 three years before, which had been driven non-stop on a daily basis by well over twenty drivers of varying standards, claiming he wouldn't replace it because it hadn't been taken care of.

Answer - Yes

Question - Would a respectable chain of care home's send all of it's staff and service users out of the homes three years in a row, when they knew that CSCI (commission for social care inspection) would be visiting, in order to stop them talking...

Answer - Yes

Why?

Because: Businesses exist for the sole purpose of turning a profit.

And these are but a few of the things that I witnessed, nobody was beaten and nobody was raped, but those are not the only forms of abuse.

Why am I telling you this?

Because you need to know.

‘But it always seems so nice when I visit…’

Because the minute you hung up the phone a carefully orchestrated game of charades will commence airs and graces and smiles on faces will be etched for your benefit. Rooms will be cleaned and residents faces wiped clean of grime in haste, and the man in the suit, with the luxury car and clean shaven face, with the emphatic nod and the comforting smile, will pause counting his money briefly to come down and inform you of how well things are going and of the progress being made.

What can I do?

Ask questions, turn up unannounced, speak to the lower staff (some will be afraid to speak to you, others will at the very least give hints), ask more questions, be involved, check files, read reports, ask more questions.

Why?

Because: Businesses exist for the sole purpose of turning a profit.