Opinion piece for the Australian
I submitted this little "vant" (new verb: vent + rant) to The Australian Forum column. For an idea of what I'm complaining about, check out this article in The Age by Carol Nader.
Again, they may not publish it, so here it is on the interweb. Enjoy.
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In the 1970s when the neglect and abuse of people in institutions could no longer be ignored the government responded to protect and exculpate the culprits responsible; the policy makers, bureaucrats and politicians of the day. Institutions became places of neglect and abuse directly due to their lack of funding, lack of community and government scrutiny and a "three-monkeys" approach. The abject policy failure was glossed over for almost 4 decades.
Typically, reactive policy was put in place. The de-institutionalisation / community integration policy is immaculately politically correct, but a familiar lack of funding has meant that it has exacerbated many of the problems it intended to solve. The short-comings of de-institutionalisation policy are now becoming obvious, with a "new" crisis in mental health and disabled care grabbing headlines.
Dismantling old institutions in favour of "community-based" care has in fact created for the disabled and mentally ill and their families a new form of institutionalisation; the family home. Under a community model, the home is the default site for care, with the range of support options poorly funded and inaccessible to most.
For the disabled and their families home is the new mini-institution, where isolated, unsupported and invisible they are incacerated from cradle to tomb. For the mentally ill it's the SGC outcome; Streets, Gaol and Cemetery, when are they to get hope instead of spin.
Again, they may not publish it, so here it is on the interweb. Enjoy.
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In the 1970s when the neglect and abuse of people in institutions could no longer be ignored the government responded to protect and exculpate the culprits responsible; the policy makers, bureaucrats and politicians of the day. Institutions became places of neglect and abuse directly due to their lack of funding, lack of community and government scrutiny and a "three-monkeys" approach. The abject policy failure was glossed over for almost 4 decades.
Typically, reactive policy was put in place. The de-institutionalisation / community integration policy is immaculately politically correct, but a familiar lack of funding has meant that it has exacerbated many of the problems it intended to solve. The short-comings of de-institutionalisation policy are now becoming obvious, with a "new" crisis in mental health and disabled care grabbing headlines.
Dismantling old institutions in favour of "community-based" care has in fact created for the disabled and mentally ill and their families a new form of institutionalisation; the family home. Under a community model, the home is the default site for care, with the range of support options poorly funded and inaccessible to most.
For the disabled and their families home is the new mini-institution, where isolated, unsupported and invisible they are incacerated from cradle to tomb. For the mentally ill it's the SGC outcome; Streets, Gaol and Cemetery, when are they to get hope instead of spin.
posted by Mary Lou at 9:56 PM
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