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asplanet
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26 Mar 2009, 6:51 am

Please pass on and comment on link and help support NZ:
Little Room In Mental Health System For Asperger's
http://www.guide2.co.nz/politics/news/l ... on/11/6615

More info:.
THE SWEENAN CASE : WHAT JOHN KEY COULD INSIST ON
Spokesperson for Asperger’s Syndrome New Zealand , John Greally, said today:
“Thanks to the Emma Sweenen incident, where a young 18 year old lady (described as having a mental age of 11 ) was kept in a Nelson Police holding cell over the weekend, our Prime Minister John Key has all the prompting he could ever need to insist that in future his officials at Police and the Courts have safe, clear directions on how to intelligently accommodate people at risk who have Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Failing that, the Prime Minister could at least ensure that mental health providers are ready to intelligently advise them on acceptable referral pathways and best practices.”

“The Prime Minister should not be surprised to find Autism-specific services are not available or have long been full. That does not make it conscionable to incarcerate people in senile dementia lock-ups, mental health rehabilitation houses, police holding cells, or to render them homeless – as so many have become.“

“We waited decades for it to be accepted that people with social behavioural differences like Autism and Asperger’s should not be treated as mentally ill, for a similar reason why a severe frostbite case would not be sent packing to a leprosarium.”

“Now we need to accept that these awesomely different people also have sensitivities and challenges that require a unique set of responses and recognition of their peculiar needs stemming from their different focal and sensory experience, their different intelligence and communication formats.”

“To face up to this would mean a Prime Minister putting an end to filing the issue of Autism-specific interventions in the ‘too-hard basket’, as witnessed over the last decade.”

“To face up would mean an end to feigned ignorance of the profoundly different care people on the Spectrum require – differences the Government should be aware as it funds courses to get exactly that message out to parents and professionals.”

“To face up would mean an acceptance of the considerable extra costs posed by an obvious requirement for tailored individualized care – these folk are very difficult to keep safe in the typical social situations that prevail in jails, forensic units, and other institutions, usually staffed by non-specialists.”

“The default for so long has been to passively wait for a mental health concern to conveniently appear due to deplorable long-term mismanagement of symptomology and accommodation of needs, resulting too often in serial abuse, incapacitation, and occasionally death.”

“Please John Key, use this opportunity to put us on the radar with Police and Courts, and with the rapid development of condition-specific services.”

John Greally via AsPlanet:http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=132


PM looks into autistic teenager being held in police cell - 23 March 2009
Prime Minister John Key is investigating a claim that an autistic teenager with the mental age of 11 is being held in a police cell after health authorities said they couldn't help her because she was not mentally ill. Emma Sweenen, 18, has been detained in Nelson Police Station since Friday after her mother complained that she had attacked her.

She told TVNZ Emma was a danger to the public and needed professional help. Nelson's Mental Health Unit said while Emma had behavioural problems she was not mentally ill, so was not covered by the Mental Health Act. Mr Key said he did not know the details of the case but would look into it. "It sounds pretty horrible, I'll need to get some more details on it," he told TVNZ this morning.

ACTION Autism - independent voice - building bridges
http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=c ... Itemid=128


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Jellybean
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27 Mar 2009, 4:00 am

We have the same problem here in Uk. Instead of getting help, I get threatened with police action and getting arrested if I lash out. I need help to learn to communicate without my fists and then maybe noen of my problems would happen. A cell should never be used on an autistic/AS person (unless they deliberatly murdered someone or something...)


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Macbeth
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27 Mar 2009, 9:47 am

This is a similar issue to where we are. Local Mental Health Services cannot agree who should be dealing with us, because Adult Mental Health do not cover AS, but the group that does (as yet unknown to me) do not know what to do when they have one. Add to this the fact that the local AS services blatantly refuse to contact us, and the ones in the nearest city have just lost the only AS counsellor in the whole of the county, it seems. We are merely one step ahead of NZ here. Our local authorities know we exist, even have services for us.. its just that those services are utter balls. If anyone has any suggestions about what we should be doing to fix this... after all.. other disabled communities get plenty of help and support.


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pandd
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27 Mar 2009, 1:38 pm

Macbeth wrote:
If anyone has any suggestions about what we should be doing to fix this... after all.. other disabled communities get plenty of help and support.

Local to you? You would need to check local human rights legislation, and/or regulations/legislation dealing with medical services and/or access to public goods/services.

Local to the incidents described in the article? A successful human rights case (or multiple such cases) involving cost in the form of compensation and exemplary damages, and entailing clear rulings that can be relied on in the future as a deterrent would be very helpful.

One or more rulings that we are being discriminated against, contrary to the provisions of the Humans Right Act, at policy level both by central government and local service-delivery providers (for instance the Nelson District Health Board in the instance referred to in the article) would also be very helpful.

Any New Zealand citizen can attempt to bring a case before the Human Rights Commission. Information on how to do so can be found on the Commissions web-site. If enough people complained to the Commission, the Commission would be much more likely to take action on this issue.



Katie_WPG
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27 Mar 2009, 4:48 pm

I don't know, this article seems to have the tone of "Having your cake, and eating it too".

"Oh no, we shouldn't be treated like clinically insane people. We know the difference between right and wrong, and we need to be treated like everyone else!"

After a jailing or two...

"On second thought, being treated like everyone else is uncomfortable. Right and wrong is actually pretty fuzzy for us, can we be treated specially, please? Just don't treat us like those insane people, thank you very much."

Equal rights, Equal responsibilities. The way the system works, you shouldn't be able to have one without the other. That's why the mentally ill, severely disabled, children, and the very old often have limited rights. Because they aren't held to the same expectations as the rest of society, and they will be treated specially if they commit crimes.



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28 Mar 2009, 5:08 am

Macbeth wrote:
If anyone has any suggestions about what we should be doing to fix this... after all.. other disabled communities get plenty of help and support.


I'm planning on seeking legal advice. So far, I've gone through the NHS complaints procedure (actually, still ongoing), corresponding with the local PCT. They have demonstrated they are clueless about AS/autism and seem to be under the impression it's a mental health condition that can be effectively treated with medication. Not providing access to appropriate services, as detailed in government guidelines (of which I referenced plenty in my correspondence), is disability discrimination. Such guidelines are often published due to the Human Rights Act and Disability Discrimination Act etc. Additional things to try would be writing to your local MP and maybe the local media.

There's also the option of forming a local group comprised of autistic adults and parents of adults/children. I know of one example of such a parent group (WaASP). They've had some success in putting pressure on their local authority and even acquired some endorsement from Prof. Baron-Cohen in doing so:

Link to WaASP site



pandd
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28 Mar 2009, 8:23 am

Katie_WPG wrote:
I don't know, this article seems to have the tone of "Having your cake, and eating it too".

You're no more than half right.
Quote:
"Oh no, we shouldn't be treated like clinically insane people. We know the difference between right and wrong, and we need to be treated like everyone else!"

After a jailing or two...

"On second thought, being treated like everyone else is uncomfortable. Right and wrong is actually pretty fuzzy for us, can we be treated specially, please? Just don't treat us like those insane people, thank you very much."

That is entirely inaccurate.
Being autistic does not make one clinically insane or even mentally ill, nor does it prevent mental illness. Just like someone with a broken leg, people with autism can be either mentally well or mentally unwell.

In the country in question, there is a particular way of doing things that entails a system called bail. People awaiting action against them in the courts on criminal charges are in particular circumstances given bail.

There is also the means to involuntarily commit people to care in mental health facilities in particular circumstances.

In this person's instance, everyone agrees the first circumstance of meeting the conditions for bail apply. But the Act allowing committal has not been applied, and this maybe because the person is not mentally ill, or (as appears to be the case), because this person has a disability (in addition to mental illness) that the Nelson District Health Board unlawfully discriminates against by not making reasonable provisions to ensure equal access and equitable outcomes.

So for want of anywhere better to put someone at danger of self-harming, she was shoved in a prison cell because the local mental health facilities do not have staff or systems competent to deliver mental health care to people with autism. If she did not have autism, she would have been bailed and if necessary committed to a mental health facility, not held in prison.

Quote:
I cannot see what

Equal rights, Equal responsibilities. The way the system works, you shouldn't be able to have one without the other. That's why the mentally ill, severely disabled, children, and the very old often have limited rights. Because they aren't held to the same expectations as the rest of society, and they will be treated specially if they commit crimes.

No one is asking for special treatment in respect of her alleged crimes. Ordinarily when charged with the acts this person is alleged to have committed, the individual would be remanded on bail....in other words not held in a prison cell. Holding this person in prison in these circumstances is absolutely exception in this legal jurisdiction.

No one asked for her to get out because she has autism, rather she was in there when someone without autism would not be.