Posts by Hilary Stace
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I think the assumption about the cure was about some intense behavioural intervention that autistic children would now get. Which has a blaming subtext - you have a badly behaved child, and you haven't done enough to fix it.
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Access: Autism: where have we come from…, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Thank you, Carol. As my PhD was publicly funded I have always felt an obligation to share what I learned. It was a wonderful opportunity to indulge in some research and theory. Although most of what I have learned has been from people with autism and families.
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A couple of weeks ago Minister Hekia outlined the new policy of shifting 'special' educational support from older to younger kids, including those with autism. As some of us joked it was because she thought you could cure autism at pre-school and then those children wouldn't need any resources later on. However, yesterday I heard that theory for real via a parent who had heard it at the local Work and Income office. She was told by a senior staff member that the government was putting in more resources into autism in pre-schools to cure autism because you could if you got it early. The implication that my friend was unlucky that her child's autism hadn't been caught in time.
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Steve Silberman has just been in Melbourne at their writers' festival. Would have loved to hear him in person. Maybe we would have an autism themed writers' festival here one day featuring him and Temple Grandin, John Elder Robison, Ari Ne'eman, Wendy Lawson, Dawn Prince-Hughes and others.
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This policy of assessment and treatment of mental health issues of prisoners is a good start. Huge problem. However, there are some worrying aspects such as that people with ID will be moved to other facilities. That might mean they are locked up for ever. Also we can't forget Judith Collins' punitive comments about the autistic man charged after the September Christchurch earthquake. Although maybe she has learnt from that?
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It seems like the UN Conventions aren't as powerful as I had imagined. They are more a moral than legal guideline. Internal NZ legal processes have to be exhausted before an appeal can be made to the UN . Even the NZ Bill of Rights Act does not enshrine human rights effectively enough to overturn the anti-human rights aspects of the very dangerous and outdated Mental Health Act.
So we need to support Geoffrey Palmer's new constitution which will hopefully enshrine human rights more securely. And get rid of (review/repeal) the terrible 1992 Mental Health (Compulsory Care) Act.
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A People's Review of the Mental Health System has been started back by Action Station.
https://actionstation.typeform.com/to/lXJ1sb
Also a Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/peoplesmentalhealthreview/
Crowd sourcing stories and activism.
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Very sad to hear about Kevin Hague's resignation from Parliament. He really understood about the injustices and inhumanity of the mental health system and has been a champion for a major review - something which is desperately needed. He has been a vocal supporter of Ashley's too.
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I didn't attend the final day but the case seems to have finished in a sort of postponement dependent on a decision by parliament on an appeal court ruling on the case brought by Arthur Taylor about prisoners voting. It is something to do with the implications of the NZ Bill of Rights Act (the Act that was sidelined for the Family Carers' Case).
So it is rather ironic that justice for one group of incarcerated people depends on parliament ruling on another group of incarcerated people. The Taylor case related to the 2010 Act removing the right to vote of remand and people imprisoned for less than three years, which was championed by former National MP Paul Quinn. Incidentally, I heard that Arthur Taylor, who has a sharp legal mind, but has spent much of his life in jail, was first incarcerated by the State as a child in the Epuni Boys' Home.
It all reflects the intertwined complexity of a broken system. State created the problems; State can fix.
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Tony Ellis didn’t get to start his closing submissions till this afternoon so will continue tomorrow. It is quite a sad case. I’m not sure whether the people in the court realise just how powerless disabled people with intellectual disability and autism, largely estranged from family, unable to advocate for themselves, and incarcerated by the State, really are.
I guess it comes down to whether you feel the system is benign or not. As I listened to proceedings I kept thinking would we be happy if this happened to us, or members of our family? I wouldn’t.