Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand's…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Highway 57 turns very sharply to the right on the final appraoch into Levin. Arapaepae Road becomes Kimberly Road at this bend. About a hundred metres or so past that bend is the entrance to Kimberly.
In a car....might not be noticed. In our Bus, however....takes about 100meters or so to get back up to speed. We tend to see a lot more detail travelling at 90km or less!
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The question of how to accommodate those who are unable to live independantly....for whatever reason...is complicated.
So often we see knee jerk reactions to reports of neglect, abuse and generally miserable living conditions. We close down the 'institutions' and chuck the baby out with the bath water.
Factions develop, with one side demanding that all people with disabilities should be living fulltime in the midst of mainstream communities...in the city....and not hidden away, while the other side claims that actually, living in a quiet, rural environment would be great.
I have seen both sides of this....in the mental health sector, the disability sector and in the child protection arena.
Horror stories abound from Porirua, Kingseat and Tokanui, yet back in the early eighties the 'halfway house' I worked in during the early eighties had a couple of residents who preferred to be in Tokanui. Why? Because there was no expectation on them to behave 'normally' in that environment. Not that these residents were particularly 'different' (we had far more unwell residents who were happy as Larry being out in the community), it was simply that the world affected them too deeply.
So now we have a 'choice' between poorly resourced community care and voluntary/compulsory care in inner city acute units. Perhaps one day we will see a couple of units being set up in the quiet of the countryside...properly run this time...for those who simply do not fit into this current system.
Fast forward to the early 2000s and Peter and I are offering emergency foster care for CYFs and respite care through CCS Disability Action.
The same issues.
No, we do not want to go back to the likes of Kimberly and Templeton...the overcrowding and neglect and abuse. Of course living in the community is better. But, there are times when having some sort of ' facility' where children can go and stay for respite where they will be safe and well cared for would be useful. We cared for a number of disabled children whose families seriously needed a break...but there were a few requests we simply had to turn down. These were kids who were seriously violent, and/or were habitual bolters. We simply could not keep them (or our own children) safe....no matter what ' managing difficult behavious' tactics we employed. Our puny farm fences and gates were simply inadequate to constrain a child hell bent on taking off. We had a few foster children...very young ones...who came into this category. We felt terribly guilty having to reject these children (and their parents) but we knew we could not provide the care these children deserved.
There simply are not enough private foster homes available for these children....with foster parents with the right skills to care for them. More often than not, it would be unsafe to expect one couple to care for these kids 24/7. The support that foster parents get from CYFs is often inadequate. The supports for parents of children with high needs is woeful.
"Homes" do not have to be some Dickensian nightmare. Surely it is possible, with the benefit of history and hindsight, to have establishments where care can be provided in a safe and loving, but professional environment?
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand's…, in reply to BenWilson,
and it was an absolute litany of a person being jerked around as if they have no rights at all, from start to finish. The number of times she’d been uprooted just when she was settling in to a new home went on for pages.
It would be interesting to read these accounts...of individuals and families writing missives to Those In Charge to effect, if not change, better and fairer access to supports.
Even more interesting would be the responses from TIC...if any.
Sincerely hoping your Aunt rests in peace.
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand's…, in reply to Russell Brown,
A couple of years ago Peter and I made a point of driving up to (and through) the gates of the old Pukeora establishment in Hawke Bay.
Titivate it up all they like, the new owners, the ghosts of past detainees still haunt the place.
And a few weeks ago we took the back route from Palmerston North through to Levin. I had to slow down to nearly stationery for the sharp bend at the end....and asked Peter what on earth was lurking behind that hedge....hidden, unkempt, gloomy...."That's Kimberly...."
Enough said.
These places, should they be bulldozed, erased?
Or left as reminders of how it was, and how not to do it in the future?
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Access: Disability abuse: it’s not OK, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Some time ago, while travelling far from the madding crowd, one of the offspring phoned us to let us know that a Debbie someone had been on Natrad speaking out about the lack of participation from some of the 'advocates' for victims of domestic violence and the disabled. She acknowledged that there was fear that criticism of government policies would result in cutting of funding.
I would love to be able to post a link....but for the life of me I can't find it.
The Grey/Sedgwick ....http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sacs/pdf-files/Fears-constraints-and-contracts-Grey-and-Sedgwick-2014.pdf paper was a "you are not alone" message that was sadly largely ignored by the very 'silent ones' that Debbie Hager spoke about.
Gee...I bet Ma and Pa Hager are proud parents.
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Access: Disability abuse: it’s not OK, in reply to Hilary Stace,
I stumbled accross that last week Hilary...made a mental note to sit in...got busy, and promptly forgot.
Did you participate? Any standout results/statements?
I would be particularly interested if there was an undertaking to act on the reccommndations from the Putting People First report....especially about attitudes of staff in facilities towards disabled, and the Ministry cancelling contracts of those Providers who fail to meet the terms of those contracts.
Thank you for keeping us informed!
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Hooten using words like "hissing" and "poisonous".....is it just me, or is he trying to evoke images of a sneaky snake, slithering through an otherwise Eutopian paradise (a Godzone, if you like), on a mission to turn more of us over to the Dark Side?
Hoots, mate, buddy old pal.....we don't need the likes of Nicky and Giovanni and Mandy to 'turn' us....we are already there.
Its just that SOME people seem particularly able to put what the rest of us are thinking and feeling into coherent form.
Thanks.
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And thats what it is all about.
Our children doing better than us.
There is something unnatural and obscene about the following generations having to struggle harder for fewer (if any ) gains, while the ancestors do so well.
To me, its akin to your children pre- deceasing you.
God forbid.
We need to sort this shit out.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Hilary Stace,
She doesn't hold back does she?
"Meanwhile, we’re left feeling like Chicken Licken, trying to warn that the sky is falling down while everyone else is so busy trying to feather their own nests that they don’t give a damn."
Yep, or like Cassandra before the fall of Troy.
I confess to having only just recently read Dirty Politics.(we had to wait till the price came down a bit....sorry Nicky)....BUT I did re-read The Hollow Men as a warm up excercise. Had BOTH books on the go as scrotes who should never have survived the first book kept popping up (like stinking zombies) in the second.
Had a visit from a 'friend' the other day...a staunch Key fan...He spotted the Book in a pile on the table and went off his nut at us for having such 'shit' in the house.
"I've got nothing against Nicky Hager" he said, "he's a good writer, and he did a brilliant number on Helen Clarke....."
He went on to say how Key has got the country back into surplus (?!?), and how well he comes across on morning telly.
And really....thats all that matters....
I may just take to drink.
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Speaker: Inequality: Too big to ignore, in reply to Sacha,
That's because its okay to experiment on the disabled....
oh, sorry, that was the Nazis.....