Oliver Lewis
@DrOliverLewis
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Barrister at @DoughtyStPublic . Disability, mental capacity and human rights law 🏳️🌈 🌱 Views my own
Bristol and London
Joined July 2010
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النصر
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I DID SOMETHING BAD
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#UFC305
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Care home in Bristol to close, as it can't recruit/retain staff. Where will its 52 residents go? Why aren't people taking about the catastrophic impact of Brexit's on the care sector?
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High Court rules that the Home Secretary
@SuellaBraverman
has acted and is continuing to act unlawfully by failing to provide for the essential living needs of asylum seekers. Bravo
@DoughtyStPublic
colleagues
@MikeSpencerLaw
&
@JamieBurton29
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Hello
@CliveMyrieBBC
. May I thank you and your team for your vital and extraordinary journalism from Ukraine. Night after night during this war, your stories have moved me to tears. Sending gratitude and best wishes.
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Pam and Roy Hickmott are my clients and have fought really hard to get Tony out of hospital. He’a been fit for discharge since 2013 and it’s only because they made an application to the Court of Protection that any progress has been (slowly) made.
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Hey folks, please consider trying
@veganuary
. We’ve been vegan for over 5 years - it’s easier than you think 🌱🙂
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In an inquest today, the Coroner sniffled, sneezed and said, “Don’t worry, I don’t have coronavirus. I have Coroner’s virus.” 👏👏👏
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This week I represented a mother of a young man who's autistic & has learning disabilities who is detained under the MHA. The local authority blames his mother for its own continued failings to meet his needs, and doesn't acknowledge his and her trauma. A fact-pattern on repeat.
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So lucky to still have my grandmother, 93, who has lived in Vienna since 1952 but survived the Holocaust in Budapest. Many of her family, including her father, were killed in Auschwitz. We must always stand up to bigotry & hate.
#WeRemember
#HolocaustRemembranceDay
#Auschwitz75
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Watching the
#Panorama
investigation into
@cygnethealth
's
#WhorltonHall
hospital makes me feel physically sick. Institutional 'care' breeds exploitation, violence and abuse, especially if inspectorates like
@CareQualityComm
don't do their job properly.
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Neither autism nor learning disability will be grounds for detention. A new MHA will improve access to community-based mental health support to prevent avoidable sections. I look forward to reading the detail...
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In other news, today we went to Westminster Registry Office to give notice of our intention to marry 🏳️🌈🥂
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The UK government potentially violating the right to life of care home residents and staff by not conforming with international human rights and public health guidance (thread)
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Today we persuaded a judge of the Court of Protection that a young autistic lad shouldn’t move to an inappropriate out of area placement. My pupil (who is not on Twitter: weird, eh?!) did a forensic analysis of placement records which I used in my position statement.
#ProudPupSup
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For a charity to assert that a person with dementia has “died” (before they have died) is a huge miscalculation. It’s step backwards in framing disability and describing how people living with dementia disabled are supported. It’s not “hard-hitting”; it’s repulsive.
@KateLeeCEO
We'll be there for you.
Again, and again, and again 💙
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Is a new 40-bed hospital for people with learning disability or autism actually necessary? Why not get on with discharging the 2,000+ people in "transforming care" whose beds could be used for short-term stays. We need community care, not institutions!
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The
@scotgov
's new guidance for care home staff is far better than anything
@DHSCgovuk
has produced for care home staff in England. This thread compares the 🏴 and 🏴 approaches.
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#HolocaustMemorialDay
is an important day for disability rights activists. Aktion T4 was the Nazis’ “euthanasia” (=murder) programme for children and adults with learning disabilities / mental health issues. More from my colleague
@CohenMarisa
at 1pm 👉
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Contrast
@jacindaardern
’s leadership with that of Johnson and Trump. Great analysis by
@campbellclaret
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This is a phenomenal article. Clear, compassionate and uttery devastating. Thank you,
@doctor_oxford
, for all that you do, and for writing this piece.
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It’s this sort of vile NIBYism that drives people with learning disabilities into institutions and keeps them there for life: out of mind, out of sight.
🚨 Harrison Road planning application REJECTED
I supported local residents in opposing this proposal, as it would have caused increased noise, parking, and a change in the character of the property, which would have negatively affected the area.
Read my letter in full 👇🏿
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“Father of autistic girl treated like an animal and fed through a hatch sues NHS”. Glad to be part of the legal team helping Bethany and
@JeremyH09406697
seek justice.
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I've seen many terrible capacity assessments, but nothing quite like this...
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I’d like to see a rapid, national inquiry to examine the issues across mental health and learning disability services that lead to neglect, abuse and deaths. There are clear patterns of system failure across services.
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“The day she met him, she had the biggest smile on her face and she couldn’t stop talking about him.” RIP Tommy Pilling
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Hello doctors 🧑⚕️ You should know this already, but just a reminder: you must not use a learning disability as a reason for a DNAR decision
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The BBC persuaded Senior Judge Hilder to lift reporting restrictions in this egregious case where Tony Hickmott has been detained in a mental health hospital since 2001… and fit for discharge since 2013 😳
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If you're a parent of a disabled child, you may be interested in these new jobs! 6 x Senior Strategy Advisors in
@educationgovuk
’s Strategy Unit supporting the new government’s opportunity mission. £53k (£57k London), 2yr fixed term. Deadline 15 July.
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Reducing mental health detention of people with autism and/or learning disabilities - some reflections
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Mental health services. In the UK. In 2021.
Got moved to Barnsley last night. Told I had a room. Get here and no bed. Put in a room with a mattress and chair and told I can't leave it for at least 2 days. This is an absolute piss take. Been in Hospital since Wednesday. 36 hours in 136. Now here. Fucked off...
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Tony Hickmott goes home.
A loving family fighting his corner, scrutiny of the media and supervision by the Court of Protection have created the possibility of equal justice, equal opportunity and equal dignity
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Lovely postscript in this case where the Court of Protection approved general anaesthesia and c-section for a pregnant women with learning disabilities
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Congratulations to my friend Vivian de Torrijos
@VivianTorrijos
, former First Lady of Panama, who has just been elected to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Vivien is a strong ally of people with intellectual disabilities. Best of luck! 🥳🍾🥂
#cosp13
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Utterly bizarre to woop about counting those with a specific diagnosis. People with Down's Syndrome represent a tiny proportion of children with additional needs. We need to focus on needs - not diagnosis - and make sure needs are met!
Great news that
#DownSyndrome
is to be included in the School Census for the very first time from January 2025, a move that will provide greater support to the educational needs of those with Down syndrome.
#DownSyndromeAct
@GillianKeegan
@educationgovuk
@ndspolicygroup
@appgds
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I know there’s other ‘news’ today, but this is a major milestone for disability rights in the UK. Access to justice is also about participation in justice systems - see Art.13 CRPD
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Hi
#Lewisham
Twitter! I recently represented a lovely, older, socially-isolated lady who has no friends or nice neighbours. She's terribly lonely. Is there a befriending service or someone who'd meet her a couple of times a week for an outdoor slice of cake, a chat or a walk?
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New guidance 👍 Where “individuals with learning disabilities or autism require specific exercise in an open space two or three times each day [they may do so] ideally in line with a care plan agreed with a medical professional.”
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106 deaths of people in mental health hospitals between 1 March and 1 May 2020 compared to 51 in the same period in 2019. Well done
@CareQualityComm
for publishing the data.
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Spent the weekend prepping for a 5-day jury inquest on Teams, starting tomorrow. Representing the parents of Joanna Bailey, a 36-year old woman with learning disability who sadly died while detained under the MHA in Cawston Park Hospital, run by Jeesal Group.
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New CoP judgment: an 89-year-old man will return to live in Jamaica. Lieven J finds "intangible benefits that lie in the nature of human feeling and experience". Better to "spend those last years with a loving family ... rather than being cared for by strangers in a care home."
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If any patients, former patients or family members need legal advice, 3 excellent firms are
@BindmansLLP
,
@irwinmitchell
and
@LeighDay_Law
. People with learning disabilities and autism have a right to access justice, however "challenging" their behaviour.
#panorama
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Big news -
@CareQualityComm
is prosecuting
@PrioryGroup
for failing to take all reasonable steps to stop Matthew Caseby from being exposed to avoidable harm and exposing him to a significant risk of harm.
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"Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — job opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example," she said. "It is not a tragedy to me that I'm living in a wheelchair."
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Give older and disabled people the legal right to live in their own homes.
@EHRC
calls for implementation of Art.19 of the CRPD.
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“I just can't do another winter. I'm not coping. I've had it. I'm at the end”, says Tony’s 81-year-old father Roy, my client, who was 60 when Tony was detained.
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A psychiatrist has written a report that says, "Risk assessment is an inexact activity and there is, sadly, little evidence to show that risk assessment improves the prediction of adverse outcomes." Views?
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Court of Protection uses article 19 CRPD (right to live independently and be included in the community) to inform its decision that it was in P's best interests to trial care at home rather than go to a care home
@sutton_es
@Capacitylaw
@TheSmallPlaces
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Great piece by
@DrFrancesRyan
on
@BristolCouncil
's terrible idea to institutionalise 162 disabled people currently living in the community.
@AliceLIrving
and I are instructed by
@BrilLiving
to draft their response to the consultation. More soon.
'Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?'
@DrFrancesRyan
on Bristol City Council's 'Fair and Affordable Care' policy.
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Ministers are facing a wave of legal action from bereaved families of NHS workers over PPE
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BREAKING - Birmingham Magistrates' Court has sentenced
@PrioryGroup
to a fine of £650,000 after the company pleaded guilty to the criminal offence of exposing service users incl Matthew Caseby to a serious risk of harm at Woodbourne Priory Hospital Birmingham in 2020
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Deaths of people with learning disabilities deserve proper scrutiny - Letter by
@DebatINQUEST
@sarasiobhan
@GeorgeJulian
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Woop! 🥳 The President of the UN Human Rights Council has recommended Prof Gerard Quinn of
@Law_Leeds
to be the next UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities!
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It was a pleasure, with
@TorButlerCole
, to help. But Bethany's champion is you. You've fought unpaid and (until now) unthanked for her rights over many years. Light is beginning to creep into the darkness of her seclusion room thanks to your advocacy, not ours.
I cannot begin to express my gratitude to these amazing people. Such knowledge. Such support. Such dedication.
I am writing the blog, but my 2 finger typing is like a pair of pigeons pecking over crumbs in the park!! Only a bit slower and less accurate.
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Foolish and clumsy of the PM to say that "too many care homes didn't really follow the procedures in the way that they could have". What procedures is he talking about? The one that said discharge probably COVID-19 positive people from the hospitals into care homes?
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson says: “Everyone should have the right to live in their own homes and access the right support at the right time. “ 🧐
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A privilege to be instructed by
@BrilLiving
with
@AliceLIrving
to write their response to
@BristolCouncil
’s draft policy, which if adopted, risks institutionalising an estimated 162 disabled people. Terrifying.
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"What's important? Education, love and people with fabulous ideas" says
@ConchitaWurst
#ObsIdeas
http://t.co/ptWrOo5a3r
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Word from “special care” dentists is that many of their non special care colleagues have no idea about how to treat people with learning disabilities or autism, or how to use the Mental Capacity Act. Training should be compulsory. 🦷
Research about people with learning disabilities losing their teeth in today’s
@thetimes
. Small article but very big subject. It’s sad and frightening and a huge issue for all of us in the learning disability community 😢
@PAMIS_Scotland
@SCLDNews
@ScotLDO
@RoseUnwin
@ARCScot
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@DrChloeBeale
Hi Chloe. Sorry to hear this. I see this a lot. If the person is assessed as "having capacity", mh services commonly wash their hands, and say everything that happens to the person is the person's "choice".
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In France and Germany there are now national lockdowns, yet both Macron and Merkel have committed to keeping care home visits going. If other countries can ensure safe care home visits, so can the UK.
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Inquest jury finds unlawful killing of Tony Wilkinson. He was a man with learning disabilities who was supposed to have mashed food. A private care company gave him a burger and he choked to death. Family represented by
@DoughtyStPublic
's John Hobson.
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Huge privilege to represent Jean and Keith Bailey in the inquest of their beloved daughter Joanna. They're grateful to the jury for expressing 11 concerns about Joanna's 'care'. More below
@Simpson_millar
@INQUEST_ORG
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Well done
@TorButlerCole
and
@JohnMQC
👏👏👏 Pregnant learning disabled woman WINS appeal. There will be no forced abortion.
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Huge congratulations to
@SteveBroach
on his appointment as King’s Counsel. Steve has been such an inspiration and has helped countless disabled claimants achieve justice. Bravo!! 🤩
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tonight I saw “Laughing Boy” with
@DoughtyStreet
friends. Thank you
@RoseUnwin
for telling
@sarasiobhan
’s story with such sensitivity & creativity. Huge congrats to the brilliant actors
LB runs in London till 31 May, then in Bath 4-8 June
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Hidden camera at Whittlesey care home shows abuse before man died. Often noone believes families, so they resort to filming, then get told off for it. But guess what, sometimes families are right…
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Jean Vanier, founder of
@larcheintl
, has died. He pioneered the [still radical] ideas of mutuality in relationship with people with intellectual disabilities, and that they can contribute to our communities and our lives. 1/5
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The Priory is under the spotlight again.
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Great that
@BBCNews
6pm broadcast is leading with the Cawston Park report and discussing the government’s failure to close all institutional settings for people with learning disabilities and autism
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80% deaths of people with learning disability in the week to 22 January were linked to Covid-19. This compares to just 45% in the general population
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Disingenuous by
@KateLeeCEO
. How is it in the charity's best interests to spend money telling the public that dementia is the leading cause of death by saying people die many times before they die? You should pull this hideous ad.
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Q: Whorlton Hall verdicts: Can further scandals be prevented?
A: Yes, when institutions are closed and people are supported to live in the community
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NHS Trust changes its Coronavirus visits policy following legal challenge. Pleased to have been able to help the family of a young man with autism and learning disabilities. Instructed by Stephanie Oxley of
@BisonSolicitors
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The Archie Battersbee case is back in court tomorrow because the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has asked the UK not to withdraw Archie's ventilation/treatment until it has determined the matter. What now? 🧵 1/17
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Coronavirus: Academics call for urgent inquiry into deaths of disabled people
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Yet another case today where my client, mother of young learning disabled man in supported living, has been refused face-to-face contact for 9 months. Shocking.
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“… the policy will not be taken forward at this time” - Cllr Helen Holland, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care
@BristolCouncil
. This is the result of coordinated civil society advocacy. Congrats! 🥳
*** STOP PRESS ***
@BristolCouncil
have dropped the 'Fair and Affordable Care' policy.
Statement soon.
Huge thanks to everyone who has supported us and shared their concerns.
❤️
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Much to my astonishment, the
@EHRC
seems to be doing something useful for disabled people!
We have launched an investigation and assessment into the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions over concerns about the treatment of some disabled benefits claimants.
More:
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FAQ for families of people with learning disabilities and autism to navigate the law in Coronavirus times. Pleased to have worked with colleagues on
@CBFdn
's legal panel to put this together. Let us know if we can A any further Qs 🙂
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Important new ECtHR case: GM v Moldova 🧑⚖️
3 women with intellectual disabilities detained in an institution, raped by doctor then had nonconsensual abortions, and for 1 woman insertion of IUD. Violation of substantive and procedural limbs of Art 3 ECHR.
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Condragulations to the inaugural committee of
@TheInnerTemple
’s LGBTQI+ Society who were announced at tonight’s launch event 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ 🥂
✨✨ throws glitter ✨✨
Here’s me, Jeremy Richardson the supervising Bencher, and the society’s first President in its herstory
@S_Chelvan
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Astounding review of CQC: "inspectors visiting hospitals and saying they had never been in a hospital before and an inspector of a care home who’d never met a person with dementia" 😵💫 Recruit from civil society incl patients, disabled people etc.
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I’m humbled to have been given Austrian citizenship. Vielen dank, Österreich - ich bin berührt und dankbar! 🇦🇹 🇪🇺 Thinking of my grandfather (who died when I was 12, so I remember him well) who in 1938 left Austria for Hungary where he survived the Holocaust.
Milestone: more than 1,000 descendants of victims of Nazi persecution living in the UK have now become Austrians citizens, making use of new legislation. A heartfelt welcome to our new compatriots around the globe!
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Pleased to have helped
@AmnestyUK
with its report "As if expendable", a hard-hitting investigation into the UK govt's failure to protect older people from Covid-19 in care homes. Amnesty supports
@CovidJusticeUk
's call for an immediate statutory inquiry.
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NHS England has changed its Coronavirus visits policy to include "supporting someone with a mental health issue such as dementia, a learning disability or autism, where not being present would cause the patient to be distressed" 🥳
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Releasing English hospital patients into care homes 'not illegal', claims Hancock. Good luck with that in the context of Article 2 ECHR.
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There wasn't a dry eye on Old Compton Street.
@LdnGMC
did
#SohoVigil
proud, because like it always does,
#LoveWins
.
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This sort of nonsense was said in relation to
@JeremyH09406697
’s tweets about Bethany. The High Court judge was unimpressed. Families should not be gagged: publicity is sometimes the only thing that helps.
@TorButlerCole
I've been told publicity is degrading for my daughter and alarming for future patients!
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New by me 👉 Disability, coronavirus and international human rights. Please RT.
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Poor training and poor staff selection... umm yes, but the problems are structural. No-one should be in an institution. Everyone has the right to live in, and be included in, the community.
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Tony Hickmott has been kept in segregation for nearly a decade. Now
@HuntercombeTHG
has given him 20 days notice. It’s an irresponsible and unreasonable decision: a community placement can’t be organised in that time. (1)
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Junior doctors are being subjected to a smear campaign, portrayed as venal, militant, deluded & misled-
@owenjones84
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Congratulations to my dearest friend Anna Lawson, Professor at
@Law_Leeds
, on her election tonight as Bencher of
@middletemple
! 🍾
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🍼 New resource for people with learning disabilities thinking about having a baby. Thanks
@uk_beyondwords
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The recording & slides of my webinar on disability, coronavirus and international human rights law is now online (scroll to "past webinars"). I'm offering pro bono bespoke webinars for disability rights NGOs around the world - let me know if interested.
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