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Letters

Write to Community Living at simonjarrett1@outlook.com. Note: all letters may be edited
Supported living: the next Covid-19 Meader’s view
scandal after care homes?
I am the chief executive of a London-based
charity that provides support services to
people with learning disabilities in
Westminster and neighbouring boroughs.
I have raised serious concerns about the
lack of Covid-19 testing for people with
learning disabilities and the staff who
support them. I believe that this is
discriminatory and resulting in
preventable deaths.
More than 2,400 excess deaths of
people with learning disabilities and
autism were reported between April and
May. I believe this is partly due to a lack of
testing in learning disability services.
It has been our experience that when
trying to access testing, we consistently
face bureaucracy and a lack of
understanding. People with learning
disabilities are not viewed as having the
same level of vulnerability as older
people. As a result, a whole cohort of the
community is being discriminated against.
This is of huge concern given the well- We have continually met barriers, with female assistants, I was sadly not
known health inequalities in the learning bureaucracy and bewilderment. It is that surprised. After #metoo and other
disability and autism population, with higher frankly neglectful that, without urgent scandals involving charismatic leaders, the
rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease action, we will be lamenting the deaths of story was all too familiar.
and other conditions. There are some more people with learning disabilities and I was also angry that the man who had
extremely clinically vulnerable people with of those who support them. lied to the Père Thomas inquiry and
profound and multiple learning disabilities. Gabby Machell spoken so beautifully about the dignity
Then there are others who find distancing Chief executive, Westminster Society for and respect of human beings was all the
and hand hygiene rules hard to follow. People with Learning Disabilities, London time an abuser himself. And I was
Despite all this, we have been ● Care in the crisis, page 10 devastated for my friends in L’Arche for
repeatedly informed that our service whom this was such a great betrayal.
users do not meet the criteria for testing. Jean Vanier: a great betrayal Which is why L’Arche’s response
This may be in part because of confusion I first heard of Jean Vanier when I was has been extraordinary. Most
and ignorance over their accommodation. a teenager and he inspired me to join organisations cover up wrongdoings by
People living in small, shared supported- a L’Arche community for a while. their founders. L’Arche chose instead to
living services or their own flats do not After university, I returned to the undertake the painful task of open and
qualify for testing in the same way as neighbourhood and remained a honest investigation that respected and
those in registered care homes. close friend. elevated the victims.
People living in supported housing are Over time, my admiration for Vanier After that, communities were provided
therefore being denied accesed to testing. was tempered by a growing awareness with a helpful framework to share the
This is grossly unfair, discriminatory and of his fallibilities. Despite encouraging news and support each other (movingly
exceptionally dangerous. others to live with adults with learning described by Dr Irene Tuffrey-Wijne in her
For all these reasons, supported living disabilities, he lived alone. He was blog: http://www.tuffrey-wijne.
and domiciliary care for people with homophobic. And his view that all L’Arche com/?p=767). It is an exemplar of good
learning disabilities will be the next members should channel their sexuality practice, and worth learning from.
scandal after care homes. into celebration because people with Was Vanier a good man who did bad
We have also been asked by the NHS and learning disabilities could not have sexual things, or a bad one who did good things?
others to admit people who have not been relationships was downright weird. I’m not sure.
tested. Despite our considerable efforts to Nonetheless, I believed Vanier to be a What I am sure of is that L’Arche has
protect vulnerable tenants and prevent good and humble man, and continued to shown in its worst moment that it is far,
any outbreak arising from the admission value L’Arche. I was pleased to see his far greater than the founders who
of untested people, we have been largely work being recognised in the UK in recent disgraced it. And I take comfort from that.
unsuccessful in obtaining tests. years, and mourned his death last year. Virginia Moffatt
Testing is needed in all care settings, When the news story broke that Vanier, Oxford
including supported living, as a alongside his co-founder Père Thomas, ● Accusing saints: when no one listens,
prophylactic measure. had been engaged in abusive relationships page 22

6 Vol 33 No 4 | Summer 2020 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk