Story Thirty - More Spin

Here's another example of the dreadful spin that Hillingdon used to demonise Steven, from their court statement:

"Whilst being supported to participate in community activities, a number of incidents drew attention to members of the public. These included an incident in a local post office that resulted in a member of the public felt inclined to call the police. This incident placed the support workers in a vulnerable position and the involvement of the police increased Steven's already high levels of anxiety".

What on earth did Steven do that day in the post office?

Remember the shift leader who sent Steven and the support workers on the "task completion" trip to the chemist. Well, on this particular day she sent them to the post office to get some milk for the unit. She also gave the support workers strict instructions that Steven mustn't get anything for himself whilst he was there.

So, they got to the shop and Steven wanted some crisps. Abiding my orders, the support workers tried to get him out of the shop without crisps. There were three very drunk people outside the shop, who got it into their heads that the support workers were kidnapping Steven. They tried to pull Steven away from his support workers and one of them called the police.

The guys managed to release themselves and started to walk back to the Unit. Steven was still screaming. The three drunks followed them all the way down the road and kept trying to pull Steven away. One of the support workers phoned the Unit for assistance but nobody answered the phone.

They got back to the Unit but two of the drunks blocked the gate. No staff from the Unit came out to help. The support worker phoned his manager, who drove over quickly to intervene.

How I have presented it here was exactly how the story was told to me at the time by both the support workers and the Unit manager. However, when the same story appeared in their court statement 10 months later, the emphasis became that Steven caused the incident by his challenging behaviour. After a couple of months, all ideas of support went out of the window and Hillingdon turned into litigation mode.

Where is Steven in that story?

Story Twenty Nine - Naughty Feet

Steven learnt a new phrase when he was in the Unit . "Steven - BEHAVE".

 

Whatever he was doing at the time, the barking order had the desired effect because it used to send Steven off into hysterics. Nobody at the Unit could understand why. They should have asked me. But then again, they weren't interested in answers - they were in full on litigation mode by now.

 

Why did it strike Steven as so funny? There's a line in Grease where at the High School dance and the secretary, a little pissed, grabs Sonny and starts dancing. Her accompanying line is: "When I hear music I just can't make my feet behave". This always sets Steven off - "Dad - lady's got naughty feet".

 

But now, I've also got him to understand what it really means and he uses it in its proper context as well, even though he's creased up when he says it.

 

Earlier today, Steven was playing some music DVDs. I could hear him dancing but pissing himself laughing at the same time. I went downstairs and he said: "Dad - I've got naughty feet - like at M House"

 

Have a watch. I defy anyone not to have naughty feet as they listen to this track

 

 

 

Story Twenty Eight - Partnership Working

Extract from the Unit's brochure, advertising its services:

"We work in partnership with families to achieve the best possible, person centred outcomes for......."




Action points from professionals' meeting of 8th April 2010:

1. Steven will not be allowed to return home to either parent.
2. LA to look for long term residential placement.
3. Mr Neary must not be told of this.



Even if you are able to decode the awful spin of the first statement, you don't expect the reality to be the lies and deception of the second statement.

Story Twenty Seven - Return of the SALT

I wrote in the Toasted Cheese Sandwich story about our first encounter with the SALT. She made another appearance in our lives and once again, the results backfire spectacularly.

Steven had been going to Flex gym for several years and had a one to one circuit session with his personal trainer, Adam. They had a great relationship.

Steven had a self created set routine each week that he always followed. Upon arrival at the gym, he would chat to the wheel clamper and stroke his beard, go and get changed, then point at name all the gym members on the gallery wall. Adam would arrive and they would do 15 minutes on the rowing machine, a circuit of all the weights, a game of football and a fast game of catch. It worked like a dream the vast majority of weeks.

The SALT had examined this routine and decided that one potential problem with it was that Steven may get agitated if someone was using one of the machines he was due to use and his sequence around the machines would be broken.  It was a fair point, although I couldn't remember an example of when it had caused a problem.

Anyway, one day she turned up (with the assistant manager of the Unit and a student care worker) right in the middle of Steven doing his naming the members part of his routine. The SALT had produced a symbol card, with pictures of each of the equipment in the gym. Her plan was that before Steven used a piece of equipment, he put up the symbol for that exercise and then remove it before moving on to do his next set.

Steven became very agitated because his normal routine was in tatters. Over 20 times, he pleaded - "want Sally to go" but she stayed put, determined to introduce her programme. Adam arrived and stood by helplessly in what, was after all, his arena. Eventually the inevitable happened - Steven was screaming and hit me across the chest. The SALT and the assistant manager left at that point. Adam said that they had succeeded in what they set out to achieve.

A week later I saw the logging of that incident. It was classified as "Intolerable high risk" as it was in a public place and a member of the public could have been at risk from Steven's aggression.

More risk assessments needed.

#107days #justiceforLB

Story Twenty Six - A Good Relationship

Here's what Justice Peter Jackson had to say about the Unit manager's evidence in court:

132. "The unit manager explained that the support unit is only one part of the overall service, which includes a day assessment service and an outreach service, which Steven has used. He spoke of having a good relationship and ongoing communication with Mr Neary. He described the need to be continuously aware of Steven, who is demanding to care for. He described the transitional plan, which was only terminated on 7 July. He accepted that Steven always wanted to be in Uxbridge with his father, although not all his statements are to be taken literally. He described Steven as having some good times at the support unit, with lots of fun and interaction with the staff.
     
     The manager accepted that there was no baseline for Steven's admission in 2010. There was no opening agreement and no formal best interests assessment. He explained the differences between the regime before and after April. He accepted that there was confusion about the direction of planning. Hillingdon was not sure what its plan was, and Mr Neary did not know what had been discussed. "

How could the manager say that he has a good relationship with me and good ongoing communication? He lied to me and Steven about the fake transition home plan for six months. We trusted that what he was telling us was the truth because we had no reason to believe otherwise. In that six months, I must have had dozens of conversations with him and not once did he tell me the truth about Hillingdon's real plans for Steven.

That's not the basis for a "good relationship and ongoing communication" to me.

Story Twenty Five - Lizzie & Eunice

Compare and contrast.

I really liked Lizzie. She was a heck of a worker. In the many times I visited Steven in the Unit, I never saw her once sitting down doing nothing. She really took the time to try and get to know the guys in the Unit. She was always a bit perplexed by Steven's musical tastes and anything pre-1985 was a mystery to her. She asked me once who Gene Pitney was and "did I have her CD?" I asked Steven about it and he rolled his eyes and said "Lizzie doesn't know the words to 24 Hours To Tulsa" (Not to be confused with the Chas 'n Dave song - 24 Hours To Tulse Hill).

But Steven and Lizzie bonded over Copacabana. Lizzie played the part of Lola (who was a showgirl) and Steven was Rico (who wore a diamond). She even took Steven to see the show when it was on at our local theatre.

If there was smeared shit to be cleaned up, Lizzie would be into her apron and rubber gloves in a jiffy and just got on with it.

I've mentioned Eunice in an earlier story ("Window"). She was the woman who broke the window in an argument with a fellow worker. I never once saw Eunice in an apron or rubber gloves. Apart from the times she was in the kitchen, she was always sitting in the main lounge, thumbing through the Argos catalogue. I remarked on this one day to one of Steven's support workers, who replied - "Yes. She seems to be in a permanent state of lawn mower buying". This made me laugh out loud but it was awkward as she was the only other person in the room, so it obvious the joke was about her.

Apart from the window story, Steven has never ever told me a Eunice story, so I guess that sums up the interactions she had with him.

As is the fate of these working dynamics, Eunice was often asked to step up and be team leader if any of the regulars were off. Lizzie wasn't.

#107days #justiceforLB

Story Twenty Four - "Friends"

One story sums up for me, the social care teams' dismissive attitude to Steven's normal home life.

When they submitted their papers for court, the social worker's manager (in the social worker's absence) wrote a paragraph about the council's "care plan" for Steven. This covered their plan to move Steven, under section, to a hospital in Wales and included the proposal that his contact with me, could be via "a webcam facility".

In the next paragraph, he turned his attention on me:

"Mr Neary senior has been wholly un-cooperative with our plan. Instead he has chosen to focus on the loss Steven will experience of his family, his support workers and his 'friends'".

When I read this statement, I went ballistic but sobbed myself senseless as well. Note that the word friends is in inverted commas.

Steven Neary has FRIENDS? Ha Ha!

It was so mocking and contemptuous that I made Amanda, our barrister, promise that she would slaughter him over it if she got him into the witness box.

In one sentence, it tells us everything we need to know about the social care team's attitude to family and friends. But more importantly, their view about the person they are charged with the care of. By inserting inverted commas around friends, he revealed the belief that the idea that Steven might have friendships that he values, as laughable.

Vile.

#107days #justiceforLB