Ana54

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I agree, Pandora. All of this research into questionable areas, or locked into therapies for children that don't work, when we need more research into what will work, providing longer term therapies for the children who grow up to be adults, and to provide help and respite care for parents with children with extreme cases of autism, as well as provide safe and effective treatments for these people.

There are effective ways of dealing with JRC, and ineffective ones. The Mother Jones article also had parents say there was no where else for their kids. JRC wasn't just preying on these families--JRC provided something NO-ONE else was willing or able to provide.

It's all hunky dory when one hasn't been around people with severe cognitive disabilities, but it can be scary, especially when the patient is a six foot young man who weighs over two-hundred pounds. A melt-down becomes a potential for harm to parent, child and staff, and there is sometimes no other alternative than extremes. I've seen a nurse knocked across a room, I've been kicked and punched, and a doctor stabbed.

Do I agree with electroshock--hell, no. Do I agree with restraints? In certain situations, there's nothing else. And it's crap-but it's the truth. With de-institutionalization in the eighties, communities and families were supposed to take care of their own, but with no system in place, it fell apart, and now we have this situation where the old institutions, once berated as "Bedlams," are returning in a new guise, and charging out the whazoo for their services.

Is storming JRC going to be effective? Not if there's no place for these kids to go. And some of these kids are permanent placements. There's not enough foster homes for less disabled kids--much less those with extremely special needs. The heart is in the right place for Ana--a little more thought is needed.

Metta, R.

Yes, even an NT 2 or 3 year old child in full blown tantrum mode can be too strong to be easily restrained if the are flailing and kicking and hitting. How much worse would it be if it was a large man or woman who had the cognitive and emotional age of a toddler?

It worries me a lot about pre-natal testing because it's already been used to wipe out a lot of Downs syndrome babies. Since autism is often seen as a more scary disability, how many more of us would be wiped out if such testing became the norm?

Respite services in general are sadly lacking. Carers are severely undervalued in Western society. It is not uncommon for parents or partners of people with disabilities or severe illness to hardly be able to leave the home at all, and as for holidays, forget it!

Instead of full scale de-institutionalisation (a knee-jerk response to serious abuses in some mental homes and orphanages), the abusive practices should have been targeted and the perpetrators charged with assault etc.

I'm trying to be kind. I'm saying your heart is in the right place, but your perception of reality leaves a lot to be desired.

Hmm... asylums should be ASYLUMS. Wasn't the original definition of "asylum" "a place to go for safety, a refuge"? Not a place you are locked into, committed to and mistreated in. As an example, WP is an asylum for us. It's not a prison; it's an ASYLUM. So maybe they shouldn't have forced all those people out of the asylums, but kept them open for the people who wanted to stay? I do get your point.

I didn't get asked.

Hey; d'yu wanna join or is this just a feeling-left-out thing?

What's pre-natal testing?

Testing a fetus to see if it's ret*d or whatever the parents fear, so that they can kill it if it is.

Or for other diseases. They needn't abort, they can just prepare for the kid's life.

They can, but they often come under pressure to not proceed with the pregnancy or don't want to even try.

I believe the reason mostly, is for helping the child, like an early diagnosis, supposedly.

i don't believe it.
Look whats happening in China!
Baby girls getting aborted just because they are female!
Now 100s of 1000s of young guys are faced with a love-less life of solitude & frustration
because of their parents self-important pride.
Most people are lazy and selfish and arogant and will always take the easiest way out,
faced with a difficult choice.

This world is a disgusting shit-hole and makes me want to cry, whenever i look at it too closely.
Watching it get better sooo incrementally slowly is the only speck of relief.
And knowing there are brave, commited and passionate young people like Ana54
straining at the leash, demanding change and ready to make a difference,
chokes me up.

Seconded.