autismcornwall

Green Light played host to a Government advisor looking for best practice in residential care for people with learning disabilities in response to the Winterbourne View hospital abuse scandal.
Stephen Taylor, principal advisor for the Winterbourne Joint Improvement Plan - (JIP) reporting directly to the care minister Norman Lamb, arrived at Green Light’s headquarters in Redruth on Monday (AUG4) looking for areas of good practice to inform national plans to revamp care for people with complex needs, mostly those who are stuck in hospitals.
He is part of the JIP task force bringing together NHS England, Local Government Associations (LGA) and local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) and advising 152 Health and Wellbeing Board areas, including Cornwall, on how to transform services for people with learning disabilities, or autism who have mental health conditions or behaviour that challenges.
NHS England is currently devising a new national framework, headed by Sir Stephen Bubb, the Chief …

“He mystified people. The word autism wasn’t bandied about when AG was a child. It was never mentioned.” Peter describing how professionals' viewed his son’s condition in the early 1960's. The youngest child of a Cornish dentist his parents were full of hope and expectations for his future. Born in 1961 his development was normal, in fact his speech and reading skills were beyond his years, until the age of three when he fell silent.

AG playing with his older brother, Bruce (L).
“He would listen but there was no conversation,” said Peter, who could only watch as his son’s abilities slowly slipped away leaving a young boy unable to communicate and frustrated at the world facing him. He went to mainstream school and Scouts but AG struggled to fit in and in the end his mother cared for him. “I used to read to him, I tried to teach him how to write but I think he is dyslexic. His elder brother was very understanding but the play was a bit one-sided. There was never any purpose for …