A SUMMARY

  The Campaign for the completion of Hospital Resettlement in Wales for people with learning disabilities seeks to end the longest hospital waiting list of all. The principles underlying the campaign are the familiar, but often ignored, principles of the All Wales Mental Handicap Strategy:

—  a right to an ordinary pattern of life in the community;

—  a right to be treated as an individual;

—  a right to additional help and support in developing their maximum potential.

  Long term incarceration in hospital through lack of community alternatives strikes at the heart of these principles. This is not an issue of policy or economics, but one of human rights. David's story, as told by his mother, is typical.

  "My son David has been a resident of Hensol hospital since he was 16 years old in 1980. He has had a good relationship with the staff over the years and around February 1996 David was told `that he would be out in the community in 12 months from April'. Then last year he was told that he would be out in March 1999 and it doesn't look like he will be out then. He is looking forward to coming out and they say they would look for areas near to me making it easier for the family to visit him. He keeps asking every time I see him `When am I getting out?' and it is making him distressed because we can't give him a definite date. I would like to see him out in the community because he has great plans."

  Currently there are 450 people left in the three large long stay hospitals in Wales—Llanfrechfa Grange, Hensol and Bryn y Neuadd. There are no clear and agreed plans for resettlement for these people.

WHY ARE THEY STILL WAITING?—A HISTORY OF BROKEN PROMISES

  1983—The All Wales Mental Handicap Strategy was launched.

  1989—The term "comprehensive resettlement" first used by the Welsh Office meaning that all hospital residents were to be resettled back to community settings.

  1991—Welsh Office Circular envisaged that support and accommodation would largely be provided in ordinary flats and houses, in local communities and that individuals would normally not share with more than three or four people.

  1993—Llwyn View, Broughton and Coed Du hospitals close showing that it can be done.

  1994—Welsh Office Circular made the objective of full resettlement explicit and made Health Authorities and Local Authorities make firm plans to:

—  resettle the residents of long stay mental handicap hospitals into more homely settings in the community;

—  relocate other care and support services into community based settings . . . thus allowing the closure of hospitals;

—  resettlement to be complete by 1 April 1999 and all remaining hospitals to close over the next five years.

but then . . .

  1994—Welsh Office conclude that resettlement should concentrate on Ely with resources being made available for resettlement from other hospitals at some time in the future.

  1998—Welsh Office make funding available for 10 individuals. Consideration of remaining resettlement is deferred until after the start of the Welsh Assembly—after 1 April 1999.

SOME FACTS ABOUT RESETTLEMENT

  Resettlement is complex. It takes at least two years in most instances from plans being agreed to people moving. The size and scope of the task cannot be underestimated.

  The stress of waiting is very real for all 450 people involved—and for their families and carers.

  Resettlement will cost more money than is currently being spent on these 450 people in some instances considerably more if it is to be done properly. But resettlement is not about saving money—it is about ending poor care to the must vulnerable citizens in our society.

  Unless we resettle people, transfer resources and close the hospitals there is a real danger that they will begin to fill up again with our children and young adults. Future generations should have local not institutional services.

  It will not be possible to gain the commitment of local authorities unless some protection is made by the Welsh Office for resettlement funding.

  More people have died waiting for their move in the remaining three hospitals in Wales than have been resettled. Some have also been transferred from one institutional setting to another.

  Anyone can live in the community regardless of their additional health and social needs. Ninety-five per cent of people with learning disabilities in Wales already do so.

  People in hospital are "socially excluded" in a way that nobody else is in Wales.

OUR CAMPAIGN AIMS . . .

—  completing the resettlement of all people in long stay mental handicap hospitals by the end of the first term of the Welsh Assembly;

—  ensuring that sufficient funding is available to meet both the one off and recurrent cost of resettlement within this time frame;

—  ensuring that the ringfencing of funding remains in place for all resettlement monies;

—  ensuring the appropriate co-ordination of individual planning takes place between the Welsh Office, Hospitals and Local Authorities;

—  ensuring that all the hospitals close completely and do not reconstitute themselves as "continuing care facilities";

—  ensuring that no-one is placed in inappropriate alternative institutional settings;

—  ensuring that each person and their family and advocates are fully involved and informed;

—  ensuring that creative and individualised means are used to meet people's needs in the community.