What are you going to do about the Winterbourne View Hospital scandal?
You have heard about it surely? First it was a Panorama programme broadcast in May 2011. It showed dreadful physical, emotional and mental abuse of people with severe learning disabilities in a private hospital in Bristol. Even the Prime Minister commented on it in the House of Commons.
Subsequently the hospital was closed, 11 staff were arrested, charged, convicted and, in October 2012, were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, five of which were suspended.
Shocking pictures
The day after the sentencing, Panorama broadcast a follow-up programme. They had found that 19 of the 51 former residents of Winterbourne View had suffered abuse in the institutions to which they had been moved when the hospital was closed. But the programme showed no shocking pictures; there were none of the shrieks and screams of the earlier broadcast, just the dull pain etched on the faces of parents at the revelation that things were still not well with their son or daughter. The reaction to the programme has been more muted in the media. Soon, no doubt, the story will die. But voiceless and defenceless people will continue to suffer. What will you do about it?
There is something you could do, but it might challenge your way of life, shaking its very foundations.
How about us?
If there is one group of people who could be expected to be compassionate it is Christians. The love of God has been poured out into their hearts by the Holy Spirit God has given them (see Romans 5.5). As a result they have the capacity to be moved with compassion as their Saviour was (see e.g. Matthew 9.36). Interestingly, in a report published by the Commission on Dignity in Care for Older People, set up by the Local Government Association, the NHS Confederation and Age UK, it was recommended that ‘managers ... must recruit staff ... who demonstrate compassionate values and behaviours’ (p.14). On this basis one could expect that a high proportion of such staff would be Christians and care agencies with a Christian foundation would be well supported by Christian generosity. The facts do not bear this out. Prospects, which provides support for people with learning disabilities, and Pilgrim Homes, which cares for elderly people, for example, face an uphill struggle when it comes to donor income and staff recruitment.
The reasons for this are not hard to find. Care work is poorly funded by the state — services for vulnerable people are exposed to harsh cut-backs at present. Consequently, no one makes a fortune working with people with learning disabilities or older people. Care work inevitably requires staff to work shifts and unsocial hours. It is all very well to talk of love, but the deeds and actions are a tough call (see 1 John 3.18).
And there is always the other side of the street, of course (see Luke 10.31,32).
David C Potter, MBE, is founder of Prospects.
