Clearly, we haven't yet left the dark ages...

03/08/11 12:24

I read today, with great sadness, that yet another person with autism has been murdered at the hands of an ignorant caregiver. I understand the difficulty in managing the behavior of a severely autistic person; however, the science has come so far, particularly in the last 25 years, that it is inexcusable that people who work in any capacity caring for a severely disabled person do not have the required training or motivation to use that training. Ironically, this horrendous act occurred in a state that is very advanced when it comes to working with people with autism and the investigation suggests that the caregiver was not using the appropriate protocol; however, it begs the question as to why we do not have systems in place insuring that disabled people in the care of others are not either incompetent or malevolent! It is not enough to have compassionate people care-giving to disabled people; there needs to be systems in place that make any kind of abuse immediately noticed and stopped.

Let’s hope that this incident will make the State of New York become a leader in employee monitoring systems at their various facilities. If the Judge in the case orders it, that would be a first step...