Crash: What went wrong at Winterbourne View?
From Journal of Intellectual Disabilities
Despite significant investment of expertise and resources, it has remained remarkably difficult to maintain basic standards of good practice in many of the specialist services for those with intellectual disabilities in England. Indeed it seems to have been difficult to ensure that those who use these services can be protected from the most serious abuse and neglect. In 2011 a ‘Panorama’ television documentary raised the profile of unacceptable practice and indeed criminal abuse following the undercover filming of outrageous acts of cruelty in an independent hospital called Winterbourne View. This editorial represents a full year of reflection on these events and our consistent failure to maintain minimum standards in services and supports for people with learning disabilities. It focuses on the events at Winterbourne View and sees them as an inevitable crash at the end of a journey. However it is also the story of the lives of many thousands of people with intellectual disabilities in the UK and beyond.
Article details
Peter Oakes (2012). Crash: What went wrong at Winterbourne View? Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 16 (3) : 10.1177/1744629512449095v
Tags: criminal abuse, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, neglect, Winterbourne View
