DAA News Network
Serbia: European Union stops funding for institutional care
Posted 30/07-11 at 23.37
After sustained pressure from human rights groups, particularly Serbia's Disability Rights Initiative (MDRI-S), the European Union has withdrawn support for the reconstruction of six institutions for disabled people in Serbia.The €5.1 million pr ...
UK: Care home company criticised for failing residents
Posted 30/07-11 at 23.11
After an BBC undercover investigation found gross violations of disabled people's human rights at Winterbourne View, a care facility run by Castlebeck, 23 of the company's other homes have been inspected. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report ...
UK: “Train your bowels”, disabled residents told
Posted 08/07-11 at 18.54
The Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS), the country's care watchdog is investigating allegations that disabled residents at a supported-housing complex run by the Margaret Blackwood Housing Association have been told to train thems ...
USA: Judge rejects government case against residential institution for people with learning difficulties
Posted 15/06-11 at 16.18
District Court Judge Leon Holmes has dismissed most of the claims made by the U.S. Department of Justice that the 500 disabled residents of the Conway Human Development Center (CHDC) in Arkansas were subjected to abuse and neglect, poor medical care, ...
USA: Cruel but usual treatment at New York residential institutions
Posted 13/06-11 at 16.45
In March, 2011, the New York Times published a devastating exposé of conditions in the state's residential institutions for disabled people. Now they have written a related story about the 2007 death of 13-year-old disabled boy, Jonathan Cary. He ...
Europe: Institutional imprisonment of disabled people condemned
Posted 13/06-11 at 14.48
The European Disability Forum (EDF) has reasserted its opposition to the institutionalisation of disabled people. This follows the BBC's revelations about the abuse of disabled people in Winterbourne View care home near Bristol in the UK. ...
USA: Worker at residential institution arrested for sexual abuse
Posted 05/06-11 at 19.22
Orlando Baez, a care worker, admitted to the sexual abuse of a 26-year-old woman with mental health problems living at Hillandale, a residential facility in Pasco County, Florida. This marks the second time an employee has been arrested for sexually ...
UK: BBC programme exposes criminal abuse at care home
Posted 03/06-11 at 12.40
On May 31st, the BBC screened an extremely disturbing documentary showing the violent abuse suffered by people with learning difficulties at Winterbourne View, a residential institution near Bristol run by Castlebeck. The latter is owned by an off ...
USA: State sued over failure to move disabled people from institutional care
Posted 11/02-11 at 01.25
In a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas, the US Justice Department claims that residents of the Conway Human Development Center aren't being given enough of a chance to move out into the community. The state-run institution holds around 510 pe ...
Europe: Disabled people continue to face abuse in institutions
Posted 24/10-10 at 22.41
Caged beds and other restraints are still used in a number of Council of Europe member states to keep disabled people "under control". Too little has been done to prevent this and other kinds of abuse in institutions. There is an atmosphere of imp ...
Croatia: Disabled people imprisoned as deinstitutionalisation fails
Posted 25/09-10 at 17.05
Human Rights Watch has just released a report entitled, "Once You Enter, You Never Leave". This is a searing indictment of the failure of the state to free disabled people from institutions in the country. Although the government has promi ...
USA: Disabled child starved to death in state care facility
Posted 26/05-10 at 17.26
Johnny Andron, a ten-year-old disabled boy, died of starvation while in foster case in Michigan. His mother, Elena, a single parent, had asked for help when she lost her job. The ‘help’ was to take her son into care. ...
USA: Federal government sues Arkansas for holding disabled people in institutions
Posted 16/05-10 at 21.52
The US Department of Justice is taking legal action against the state of Arkansas for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The lawsuit claims that, ‘The state gives individuals with developmental disabilities the draconian choice ...
Ireland: Complaints mount about abuse of disabled people in residential care
Posted 24/02-10 at 00.46
More than 500 complaints have been made over the last two and a half years over the abuse of and indifferent care provided to disabled children and adults in institutional care in Ireland. At the moment there are few protections for people ...
Europe: EU calls for ending institutionalisation of disabled children
Posted 24/02-10 at 00.24
At the beginning of February, the EU Committee of Ministers released a strongly-worded recommendation calling for disabled children to be cared for in families and in the community instead of long-term residential institutions. This is backed up b ...