Hundreds of Autistics locked away and violently abused in UK

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Yep. Geraldo Rivera and Willowbrook. Remember it well! 1972.

You’re right, whatever the source, I hope the expose puts a stop to this sort of thing.

I actually know an ex-resident of Willowbrook.

There have been so many media exposés of abuse, damning inquiries, and promises of action for more than a decade, but still there is grotesque systemic inertia that leads to torture for thousands of citizens. Christmas is a time for families, New Year for hope. So when will this horror story end?

A care home resident had to be taken to hospital after being stuck on his bedroom floor for three days during the summer heatwave. His parents, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their son's privacy, told LeicestershireLive he was sitting in pools of his own faeces and urine for much of this time.

In the end, the father had to call the fire service to get their son off the floor. During these three days, their son was either naked or naked from the waist down.

The family reached out to LeicestershireLive after the home, in Groby Road, Glenfield, was rated inadequate by healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission, (CQC). They said the report came as no surprise to them as the standard of care they say they had witnessed at the home has been getting steadily worse for the past 18 months to two years.

His circulation went to pot because he was sitting in pretty much the same position,” the mother added. “You know what it’s like when you’re sitting on the floor for even an hour or two. You get stiff, your legs go to sleep.

“He was there for three-and-a-half days. They thought because he wouldn’t get up there might be something broken. But we thought, his legs had gone to sleep and he was just frightened to get up, which proved to be the case.”

The father continued: “The nurse practitioner said it was imperative we got him to hospital. It took the fire brigade to get him up because they didn’t have any lifting equipment. They do now. It took us two days to get him off the floor because no one would come and lift him.”

Their son has autism and cerebral palsy. “He’s a big lad,” his father said. “Six foot with the mental capacity of about two. He has a few words, but can’t understand or explain very much.”

“When he’s in a good mood, he’ll give you a nice big hug, he smiles, he laughs, he goes out, rides around on his tricycle,” his mother continued. “But that’s quite often not in use because the tires are flat or it’s not been properly maintained. He loves to go out in the car, he loves swimming. He can be really, really happy.”

This is not the first incident at the home, his parents said. “He did become very obese, at one stage he was about 22 or 23 stone,” his mother said.

“That was as a result of him being fed a very, very poor diet. So we worked with Heathcotes to try to get them to reduce his weight, which we had tried to do before but it hadn’t happened.

“They’ve now got a dietician and it has started to happen. I have asked for his menu to see what he is eating and I’ve haven’t had it yet.”

The father added: “He cut his hand very badly because he put his hand through a window. Imagine having a shed in a garden where highly disabled adults are active, but it doesn’t have safety glass in it. So he put his hand through a window and smashed it and cut himself very badly.”

Their son is funded to have two-hour excursions outside of the home every day. He likes travelling in the car and going to the airport, his parents said. But reports they have received from the home show these trips have all but stopped, they claimed.

“He is funded specifically to allow him for two hours a day to go out into the community, for walks, exercise, go to the disco or swimming,” his father said. “They used to do that regularly, but over the past year that’s pretty much all stopped.

“They agreed to provide us with information every two weeks over what activities he’s done. I’ve got three months of that. By the information they themselves have provided, there is barely any evidence of him being out of the house.”

“The car is nearly always broken, they only have the one,” the mother added. “It’s nearly always out of action.”

The family said they were aware that a new manager had been brought into the home, but they were not convinced it would make much of a difference. The father said: “We’re concerned about the quality of the new manager, who we both think is a nice person, but she’s not a manager.

“She’s the one who has really let it go down hill, it comes from the top,” the mother added.

“It can be done,” his father continued. “If the top is good, good things will follow. But if the top is bad, it’s almost universally bad for the whole enterprise.

“After the incident, the manager was away, so they brought in a manager from another of the homes. Things changed noticeably and radically and quickly.

“She went out buying toys for all the residents. She bought some musical instruments which he’s very keen on, we got pictures from her.