I wanted to record some random thoughts generated through the exceptional Disability Matters Conference. You can visit the conference website here and see what was covered. I can honestly say its been a long time since I’ve been at such an eclectic and authentic conference. The three days brought together disabled people and self advocates, […]
Day 6 in Australia today and I spent the day at the New South Wales Ombudsman’s office for a training workshop Handling serious incidents in the disability sector. The workshop looked at handling allegations of abuse and neglect in a disability service setting. It covered: Identifying serious incidents – the legislative and policy framework Planning and […]
Once I’ve started something I always try my hardest to finish it, so having deconstructed and analysed paragraphs 1-9 of a letter from Katrina Percy to Sara Ryan, this post attempts to finish the rest of it. If you’d like to catch up before reading this, you can read the analysis of paras 1-3 here, then paras […]
This post continues on from Impersonal correspondence: paras 1-3, all the context is there. This post continues to deconstruct the letter, starting at paragraph 4: ‘Like every single organisation and individual in the world, we are not perfect and on a rare number of occasions we get things wrong, sometimes with deeply distressing consequences. On […]
I’m struggling to know where to start with this blog post, which if I’m honest doesn’t happen to me very often. I’m usually blessed with the ability to sit down at my keyboard, churn out words for a wee while and then sit back and edit it into something coherent. Today I’ve been procrastinating for […]
The more observant among you will have noticed I’ve been tweeting a bit about #JusticeforLB lately. I kind of figure that if you read this blog, or my tweets, you’re fairly used to me irritating you or over-sharing on things like death and dying. I know that’s not easy for everyone but as I’ve blogged […]
I’d like to share a story from my past, I’ll try to cut the detail and make it brief. When I was thirteen or fourteen I volunteered for a week in a local play scheme for kids with special needs. Run by social services to this day I can’t remember how I knew about it, […]
Since I started freelancing it has been really important to me to work with people who I think are a) doing important stuff, b) have values similar to mine and c) where I feel I can make a contribution and I’ll enjoy doing the work. I’ve spent a small amount of time recently working with […]
I’ve not blogged too regularly of late, I blame Social Care Curry Club, which has been a brilliant distraction and useful channel of so much energy. That said I felt like today warranted a post, as today is Dad’s 66th birthday. Well it would have been his 66th birthday but he died last year. Do […]
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about a TV series but tonight I was catching up with Don’t call me crazy that was broadcast on BBC Three on Monday evening. Filmed over a year in the McGuinness Unit for Adolescent Mental Health in Manchester. The centre is one of the largest teenage mental health […]