Get Steven Home campaign + Autism Campaign

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Hey everyone,

It's been ages since I've used this site, but I would like you all to help and support a campaign for a 20 year-old Autistic man who lives in my local area.

Steven is a 20 year old man with autism. He loves music, swimming and Mr Bean. Since December 2009, Steven has been incarcarated in a care home, against his and his family's wishes. He went away for three days respite as his father was unwell and hasn't been home since. On 7th July, the London Borough of Hillingdon decided Steven would never be allowed to return to the family home as he is too great a risk. Since being in the care home, occurances of his challenging behaviour have risen by over 300%. In April, Steven was served a "Deprivation of Liberty" order as he escaped from the home and removed a man's glasses. No staff on duty noticed he was gone until he was out on the main road.

His clothes are repeatedly torn and he appears with bite marks on his arms and hands (not self inflicted). He has tried to escape on several occassions. He is repeatedly forced into a double bind situation where the managing aunthority create a situation that he finds difficult to understand and gets upset about. Steven reacts to the situation and then his reaction is used as evidence that he is too challenging. In the last two weeks the London Borough of Hillingdon have cancelled Steven's much look foward to holiday and his overnight stays at home. He is 20 years old and could be facing the rest of his life in an institution.

Important Links:

The Facebook campaign group:
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622# ... 5726596848

The online Petition:
http://www.Petitiononline.com/Steven/petition.html

The Radio 4 Interview:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6gdq#p0096yw6

The BBC London News Interview:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9G1PHSHeuY

The Local Paper Report:
http://uxbridge.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/2 ... r-aut.html

The Local Paper Follow Up Report:
http://uxbridge.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/2 ... sm-st.html

The Report from Steven's Gym:
http://www.flexlifestyles.co.uk/support ... neary.html

The above information was copied from the Facebook group. I can't really say much about the campaign because i find these things hard to explain but I feel very strong about it. I think it's wrong to take a person with disabilities away from the place where they feel safe and happy, in Steven's case his own home. He was only meant to stay at the care home for a few days until his dad recovered from a illness, but instead Hillingdon Council forced him against his own will to stay there for much longer. I feel sorry for his dad, who feels helpless against these 'bullies'-the council. If we get enough signatures on the petition,something could be done, hopefully a happy ending.

I would also like to post another link to another petition. This one is slightly different though- This petition is aimed at the three main party leaders in the UK to do more for people with Autism. There is also a Facebook group and Page.

It's time for change stand up for Autism with Kevin Healey Group
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622# ... 875&ref=ts

It's time for change stand up for Autism with Kevin Healey Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/its-time- ... 5941522533

It's time for change stand up for Autism with Kevin Healey Petition
http://www.autism-campaign.co.uk/

Thank you everyone for your support!! !!- If I have placed this topic in the wrong place, I am very sorry but could the admins please move it to the correct place. I'm sure I haven't though.
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The UK seems to be inching closer to a sort of "soft totalitarianism" every day. Here in America, we put the mentally ill in prisons with hardened psycho criminals, and then encourage the criminals to "take care of" (kill) the mentally ill, so as to relieve ourselves of the burden of caring for them. "Suicides" are a constant in US jails, many actually killed by the cops or by inmates acting on behalf of the cops. The UK still uses institutions. In the US, we kill the mentally ill to "save money", and admittedly a dead person costs $0 in upkeep. The benefit is that they no longer experience anything once they're dead. The UK is much more harsh. This young man would likely be put in jail here, then he would "commit suicide". At least his pain would be over then.

This is just unfair. He does not deserve that. I hate it when having a "disability" allows other people to think they can do what they want with that person. History has proven, though, anytime the ruling class is too much to bear for the people, the people will take it all back. I hope it comes soon.

Thank you for the comments- I was hoping there would be a big responce to this, but it will come in time hopefully. Mark Neary, Steven's adopted dad has replied to my posting of the link on Facebook and he's pleased that I'm speading the message out to the autistic community. I've been extremely lucky with the help and support I've had for my condition but I am aware that some sufferers are not as lucky as me, especially in my local town. This is why I'm trying to help.

Steven is really not enjoying being in care and he has been playing up at the home. Despite pleas from his dad and others, the housing council are taking none of it and are still keeping his prison inside the house. He's allowed to see his dad and support workers twice a week, for a few hours. He makes the most of his time at his real home but has asked his dad several times when he can come back and stay for good. September is coming soon and Steven would really like to be back at home because TV programmes like 'The X Factor' and 'Strictly Come Dancing' will be starting.

At the care home, Steven can only watch them on a portable TV because a lot of the electrical equipment (computers, DVD Players, TV, etc) are either broken or the home does not have them. Steven is not even allowed to go out of the care home with support anymore because of an incident. He ran away from his care home and met a vicar on a busy main road. He had a conversation with him and it ended up with Steven taking the vicar's glasses and throwing them onto the road.

You can find out more about Steven and any recent news about him using the links above. Mark Neary keeps a blog on Facebook about the case too.

You are doing a good job!! ! He is lucky to have someone like you that cares

We have to continue to shine the light of public attention on such acts as long as there is light in this world left

This is wrong beyond belief. He and his family have rights. and if for some reason I'm wrong, and they don't, then that needs to be changed. Now.

I am new to this group but I would urge anyone to support Steven.

Thanks to the OP for bringing Steven's case to the forum. I am Steven's dad. I've copied this post from our blog and tells the story of yesterday's visit where Steven had to have a mental capacity assessment to determine whether he could decide where he wanted to live:

Well, this morning we visited the psychiatrist for Steven's second mental capacity assessment. The good thing was that it was with the psychiatrist Steven has been under since he was 18, so he had some knowledge of the background. We were in the room 1 hour and 10 minutes and Steven did remarkably well to sit calmly all that time because there were a few occassions when it got quite heated.

It became clear in the first ten minutes that the psychiatrist had been given an untrue picture of why Steven was at the positive behaviour unit in the first place. He had been told that it was because I had been struggling with Steven's challenging behaviour. he was quite shocked when I told him the real reason!He clearly hadnt been told that Steven left his home for three days normal respite. It made something that happened back in January fall into place. Steven had a normal appointment with the psychiatrist at the end of January. I arranged to meet them there at 2pm. I got there about 20 minutes early and waited outside. I'd been waiting for about five minutes when Steven, the manager of the unit and Steven's support workers emerged from the hospital. I was told that Steven's appointment had been brought forward but nobody had told me. Just think how different that appointment would have been if I had been there and told them how Steven came to be at the Positive behaviour unit. More and more, it becomes obvious that things were set up from the start.

It was also awkward when the psychiatrist asked Steven why he was at the unit. He was looking to hear Steven say something about his challenging behaviour but Steven said it was "cos Dad was not well next Wednesday" (i.e. the day he went to the respite unit). As I have never been able to fully answer why Steven is at the unit, it's not suprising he has no answer either.

Back to the assessment - Steven made it quite clear that he wanted to live at the uxbridge house. Now matter how the question was phrased, he always came up with that answer.

There were two times he got stuck and started to get agitated. The first time the psychiatrist asked if him "Merchiston was better than......" I could see Steven was getting confused by this because to him "better" is what happens to you after you have been unwell!When one of his support workers rephrased it to, "which do you like best?", he was back to choosing the Uxbridge house.

The other occassion was when the psychiatrist asked him waht he liked to do at Merchiston. Steven replied: "Watch telly". He was asked the question a further three times and each time, he answered "watch telly". The psychiatrist took this as Steven not understanding the question but I said that was all he could answer because that was pretty much all he did. When asked the same question about the Uxbridge house, he came up with five things he liked to do. 5-1 to the Uxbridge House!

Needless to say the psychiatrist announced at the end that he was going to recommend that Steven does not have the mental capacity to decide where he wants to live. In his opinion, Steven cannot make an informed decision about the matter.

So, that's that. It just proves what an uphill struggle its going to be in court when such blatant lies are put before the people making these life changing decisions.