Transcript
NARRATOR
Although the Mental Health Act in 1959 required that more community care should be provided, the number of people in hospitals continued to rise with more hospitals being built to meet demand. But conditions in these hospitals continued to be poor, and in 1969, as Neil Armstrong was taking his giant leap for mankind, the Ely report exposed dreadful treatment of patients. Care was described as old fashioned and custodial.
Two years later, the first white paper concerned with the care of people with learning disabilities was published. It was called "Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped," and said that not enough progress had been made in developing community services and getting people out of hospital.
Margaret Thatcher was elected as Britain's first female prime minister in 1979, the same year that the Jay Report said the lives of people with learning disabilities should be normal and that they should be part of communities. This was based on an idea called normalisation that had been followed in Denmark since the late 1950s. Clearly, it took us a while to catch up.
Finally, the hospitals started to close, and people moved to residential care homes in the community as Bob Geldof and his friends encouraged us all to feed the world. In 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. At the same time, the NHS and Community Care Act said that care should be provided by a range of services and individual care packages designed. For the first time, people with learning disabilities were also entitled to direct payments, meaning they could choose the services they wanted.
In 2001, when the world was falling apart elsewhere, "Valuing People" was published. It was the first white paper in learning disabilities for 30 years. It was based on four key principles-- rights, independence, choice, and inclusion. Meanwhile, 2006 saw EastEnders including a character with learning disabilities. Janet Mitchell was born, and she had Down syndrome.
"Valuing People Now" was brought out in 2009 to set new goals to support more people with learning disabilities to get homes and jobs and lead fulfilled lives. In the same year, the last hospital closed, and Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States of America.
The Equality Act came into force in 2010, providing a law to tackle all forms of discrimination. Despite this, in 2011, a panorama investigation exposed the abuse of residents at Winterbourne View Hospital in South Gloucester. It showed the cruel treatment of vulnerable adults and resulted in six members of staff going to prison and five more receiving suspended sentences. It was a shocking documentary and revealed how care can go horribly wrong.
WOMAN
So this history has shown that many good things have happened to help change attitudes and improve the lives of people with disabilities. But this isn't over. There is still work to be done.