The terrible case of Jonty Bravery – the teenager with autism who threw a six-year-old child from the 10th-floor balcony of Tate Modern gallery – is almost beyond words. The child has shown some signs of recovery, but his injuries are appalling. Bravery lived in a flat in west London and received two-to-one carer support. Our primary concerns must be the boy and his family, and the prevention of similar events. But already critics are circling to criticise the idea of community care. Times columnist and BBC presenter Libby Purves attacks the “kind and reasonable” idea that people with learning disabilities take control of their own lives, questions
“community care in geographically diffuse flats” and calls for “well-run, humane residential institutions”. This sounds like a disturbing, tragic case being used to call for collective punishment. Like anyone, if people with learning disabilities are seriously ill or dangerous to themselves or others, they need to be under appropriate institutional or medical supervision. Otherwise, they do not.
Fighting quacks
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has told the Society of Homeopaths to stop its members advertising sham therapies that promise to treat autism. Hooray. The latest quack therapy to catch the attention of the PSA is “complete elimination of autistic spectrum expression” (Cease), which involves extremely high doses of vitamin C and dietary restrictions. Such approaches prey on fears and distress, offering false hope and mythical “cures”. They also rely on a view of people with disabilities as not good enough – as a tragedy in need of cure.
The joy of socks
John Cronin is a 24-year-old New York entrepreneur who runs John’s Crazy Socks, which designs and sells extremely colourful socks over the internet. He has Down syndrome. A short film called Sock Guys, directed by Katie Turinski, has been shown in the US, and will hopefully come to the UK or go online soon. You can see a trailer at https://tinyurl.com/vyp6w8n and find the company on Facebook. If the best present you can think of for the woman, man, girl or boy in your life is a pair of socks, then the least you can do is get them a pair of John’s Crazy Socks.
