The disabled

It is horrifying dorsetpennt I don't remember that happening ten or twenty years ago, and if it did it had huge press coverage and condemnation. Were these five people random, or were they family or carers? I haven't read this particular story.

Several papers today carried stories about how routine low-level abuse towards the disabled is. I don't understand what motivates such people. I haven't heard the story you mentioned about the poor murdered woman – but the mere thought sickens me.

Happened in my town, a man with special needs was beaten to death in the street after having been taunted. If an animal killed a human they would be put down.

Those poor people. For many years I worked with people with physical and/or learning difficulties in a very good residential establishment. Perhaps people who live in that sort of facility are 'protected' from the type of abuse that can be fired at them from ignorant and foul people 'outside', even if informed choices are offered and taken up with the right support. 'Care in the Community' didn't care as it should have done, which meant that many vulnerable people slipped through the net, never to be found again, so that they could be abused in unmentionable ways. A couple of years ago in our relatively small town a vulnerable young man was abused, attacked physically and left to die in a cupboard where he had probably gone to hide. This happened in his own little house of which he was so proud, because it was the first place he'd been able to live in by himself, with 'support' going in every couple of days. He had obviously been assessed for this support, and it was very likely adequate to his needs, but for anyone to hurt such a person in any way just beggars belief.

Why do people do bad things; why do people hurt others; why do bad things happen. We should make a point of doing at least one unsolicited nice thing every day and not make a big deal of it.

And many more residential communities for people with learning difficulties are under threat because of funding cuts. What will happen to these vulnerable people then? Naaban think idea of doing a nice thing every day a brilliant way of counteracting violence/negativity.

Bump!

I wasn't sure how to keep that post going - so I 'bumped' it, (I think). Then I remembered a young man that I'd seen on the bus today. He's known in the village to be an ex-heroin addict, and every morning goes to the chemist to receive his dose of methadone. This morning he travelled on the bus and alighted at a caravan park where people live who are known to be troublesome. This young chap looked so ill. His clothes were dirty and poor. He needs help and I would consider him disabled, but there appears to be no help for him because of the choices that he's made in his life. He's not going to make 'old bones', because it looks like he's back on heroin. Addicts may be victims of their own making, but the dealers deserve only the worst that can happen to them.