The above action comes after it was revealed that NHS staff abused adults with learning difficulties which included, among many other things, such abuse as a deaf and blind man being tied up for 16 hours a day; withdrawal of food; being locked in rooms, cold showers, over reliance on medication; misuse of funds and sexual abuse.
Investigations, in part, prompted by Mencap (who say that there are about 1.5 million people with learning disabilities and around 2,500 of these people live in NHS care homes), uncovered widespread abuse and a lack of understanding of people with learning difficulties in both NHS and private sector establishments. The abuse centred not only on physical and psychological abuse but also revealed that many people with learning difficulties were living in impoverished conditions. .
There are several definitions of what it means to have a learning disability, but the one that I prefer is ‘a neurological condition that interferes with a person 's ability to store, process, or produce information’. Wrongly in my estimation, the term is often applied to people with an IQ of 70 or less but just because a learning disability may affect social and intellectual development, it does not necessarily follow that those people are of low intellect. Some of those people have a very high intellectual ability but learn and use their abilities in a different way from what is considered the ‘norm’. They may be vulnerable by the very nature of their disorder, as they are often unable to interpret situations or people’s intentions toward them as quickly or effectively as other people can and this can lead to social problems. However, the Commission are right to be worried that people with learning disabilities are often deprived of their rights to liberty, safety and