We have previously cited and endorsed journalist Ian Birrell’s scathing articles on the treatment of children and adults with autism and learning disabilities in ‘secure hospital facilities’ i.e. Assessment and Treatment Units (ATUs). 

Ian has now reacted angrily to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s commissioning of an ‘investigation’ by the CQC  (“yet another review”)

Please now read Ian’s latest article , which first appeared in the i newspaper on 7th January and remains available on inews online.

The article appeared in the newspaper under the headline “No way to treat people with autism. The Health Secretary needed to act , not order another review”. The online headline is “The government needs to do more to prove it cares about people with autism”. In either version the text of the article is the same, and is scathing. Please read it.

Ian’s anger and outrage remains unabated. In conclusion he writes: “It is hard to retain much faith in Westminster amid the Brexit debacle. Yet it is even harder when politicians accept there is appalling and dangerous injustice towards a group of disempowered citizens yet show such pathetic complacency, endlessly kicking this issue into long grass while mouthing platitudes and chanting mantras of change. How many people must die, how many families must be destroyed, how many lives must be wrecked before they finally show genuine desire to stop this abuse? Or should we conclude that civil servants, health chiefs and politicians simply do not really care about people with autism and learning disabilities?”