Doctors take pregnant woman, 37, with ‘severe mental disorder’ to High Court to stop her having an abortion

20 May 2013 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , ,

As published in the DailyMail, on May 20, 2013:

“A pregnant woman with a severe mental disorder who wants to have an abortion has been taken to the High Court by doctors trying to stop her.

Her four-day case started today as Mr Justice Holman will decide whether the unnamed 37-year-old, who is 23 weeks pregnant, is capable of making decisions about terminating her unborn child.

The judge made an order – at the start of the hearing today – saying neither the woman nor the health authority responsible for her care should be identified.

Lawyers representing the health authority have told the judge that the woman suffers with a ‘chronic and severe mental disorder’.

‘She is pregnant and she has requested a termination of her pregnancy,’ they added, in a written statement given to the judge.

‘She is believed to lack the capacity to make a decision regarding the termination of her pregnancy due to her mental disorder.’

They said the health authority was asking the judge to decide whether a ‘termination of her pregnancy is in her best interests’.

The Court of Protection is part of the High Court and analyses issues involving sick and vulnerable people.

In January a pregnant woman with severe learning difficulties was told that she will not be forced to have an abortion after the High Court ruled she has the mental capacity to decide if she wants the baby.

Doctors applied for an order to allow them to terminate her pregnancy claiming the child is endangering her life.

But the judge ruled the mother, who is 18 weeks pregnant, must still have the right to decide despite having a ‘significant learning impairment’.

The woman, who is not named for legal reasons, is described as being in the ‘bottom one per cent of the UK population’ in terms of cognitive ability.

Mr Justice Hedley said even if the pregnant woman did not have the capacity to care for the baby, society does.

The patient suffers from sickle cell disease and had a series of strokes when she was young, which left her mentally impaired and for which her family won damages from a hospital for negligence.

Medics said she does not have the ability to make the decision herself and have described the need for an abortion as ‘urgent’. “

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Mother who murdered her four year-old autistic son is sentenced to fifteen years

29 Jan 2013 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News

A 37-year-old San Diego woman was sentenced Monday to 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the drowning of her autistic son.

“I hate you with all my heart and soul,” Duane Corby told his wife, Patricia Corby, before San Diego County Superior Court Judge Charles Gill sentenced her for the death of 4-year-old Daniel.

Patricia Corby told police that she killed their son because the burden of caring for an autistic child had become unbearable. She drowned the boy in the family bathtub March 31 while her husband was at work, according to evidence submitted in court.

After killing her son, she tried to commit suicide but failed, according to evidence. She wrapped the boy in a blanket and took his lifeless body to a police substation responsible for their Carmel Valley neighborhood.

Under Gill’s sentence, Corby will not be eligible for a reduced sentence due to good behavior while in prison.

Corby’s husband told investigators that he had never seen any signs of mental illness in his wife. The family had spent $70,000 trying to find help for their son.

Corby kept her head bowed in court as relatives told the judge about the pain caused by Daniel’s death, including an aunt who said the boy is probably looking down from heaven and asking, “Mama, why did you kill me?”

Published on January 28 in the Los Angeles Times

Intouchables

14 Jan 2013 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , ,

Even though the portrayal of disabled people in the media is sometimes controversial (as it was previously discussed here), the recently released french film “Intouchables” manages to capture disability in an extraordinary way. Based on a true story, the film tells the story of Philippe, a man who became quadriplegic after a paragliding accident, who hires a young man to be his caretaker. Full of amazing performances and life lessons, this film is certainly intouchable! Watch the trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34WIbmXkewU

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Disability and Childhood Depression

07 Jan 2013 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , , , ,

Even though depression can occur at any stage in a person’s life, it has increasingly been observed during early years. Low self-esteem, feelings of rejection, isolation, social segregation and insecurity are but a few of the most common causes. New studies have highlighted the signifigance of learning to identify the symptoms of depression as it often goes unnoticed. By identifying symptoms accurately, early intervention can be achieved so as to prevent depressive behaviours from evolving into major disorders. It is also important to stress that symptoms must be observed objectively and constantly. Some of the most common symptoms are listed here :

• Depressed or irritable mood for part of the day (observed for several days).
• No or diminished interest in activities or play for part of the day (observed for several days).
• Signifigant change in weight and appetite.
• Insomnia or hyperinsomnia (nearly every day).
• Psychomotor agitation or extreme psychomotor slow down.
• Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.
• Worthlessness or inappropriate guilt (can be apparent in play themes).
• Lack of concentration, indecisiveness (several days).
• Reccurent death thoughts (not just fear of dying), suicidal thoughts.

Edward and the bus

02 Nov 2012 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , ,

Eleven year-old Edward has autism, likes buses and lives in Birmingham, England. He particularly loves one specific bus, and every week he goes with his father to the same bus stop to wait for it. If they are unlucky and the bus doesn’t arrive on time, they drive along its route to find it. If the bus is not in service, they go up to the National Express garage to see it.

For his tenth birthday, Edward asked for just one thing: to have ‘his’ bus come to his home. National Express very kindly agreed to arrange this and on the day of his birthday, Edward woke up to find his bus parked outside his house. He got to play on it and had the time of his life.

His parents say that Edward has since started to learn how to drive a bus using an online simulator. He wants to be a bus driver when he grows up. Another of Edward’s dreams came true this year on his eleventh birthday when he asked to appear in the Daily Mail.

Some facts on labeling and inequality

10 Oct 2012 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , , ,

“As our children grow older, their disability is more obvious so they find it difficult to ‘fit in’”. These were the words of a parent of a child with a developmental disorder when asked how his child is finding high school. But as much as I wanted to ignore these words, I couldn’t. This statement was partly correct, in the sense that indeed it becomes more and more challenging for children who carry the label of ‘disability’ to ‘fit in’ as they grow up. In fact, research has shown that people with learning disabilities have less friends as grown-ups than while at a younger age.

Age doesn’t make a difference; however, perception does. Children grow up in a world where independence, wealth and social status are widely valued. The society labels people as ‘ubnormal’, and difference is devalued. Consequently, because of their difference to others, people are disabled from achieving any of the aforementioned social norms and this difference inevitably becomes even more prominent.

The normalization movement
At this day and age, the equality of human rights seems to be common sense. However it is obvious that if this was true, then we wouldn’t be talking about social segregation of people with learning disabilities. As suggested by Wolfensberger, the way to achieve equality is normalization. “The normalization principle means making available to all people with disabilities patterns of life and conditions of everyday living which are as close as possible to the regular circumstances and ways of life or society “(Bengt Nirje, The basis and logic of the normalisation principle, Sixth International Congress of IASSMD, Toronto, 1982).

Everyone is different, but it seems that people are more and more interested to put labels on everything in order to understand the world around them. Very often, people ask me: “i understand this person is autistic, but what does this other person have? Doesn’t it have a name? What do we call this person then?”. And the answer is: This person has a name and a personality. While having a label can bring clarification to that person’s family regarding their educational and personal needs etc, it really shouldn’t make a difference to others.

New School Year: Survival Tips for Parents

05 Sep 2012 Leave a Comment

by cyprusdisabilityforum in News Tags: , , , , ,

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The start of a new school year is always a challenge for every parent who has a child with a learning difficulty. Here are some tips to prepare you for the difficulties you may come across this September:

1. Visit the school before it officially opens for children, to meet up with your child’s teacher(s). Let teachers know exactly what you want them to achieve this school year. Give them guidance regarding your child’s needs. For example, if your child has dyslexia, give them information about dyslexia (some teachers know less than they actually should). Talk to them about your child specifically. Choose a good place for your child to sit during the year. For many children, sitting in the back would be useless. Avoid seats next to windows or doors as these can be too distracting.

2. Take your child to school to meet his teacher. The main reason for this is so that your child is familiar to his teacher -this will take away some of his stress on the first day back.

3. Have everything ready for the big day. If your child has a new bag this year, make sure that he also has something that he is used to (e.g. an old pencilcase) to give him continuation.

4. Prepare a visual timetable for your child, showing them the order of activities for every day.

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5. Your child will probably react to this change, so it is up to you to find a way for them to release the tension. You can install a swing, a trampoline or even a punch bag in your garden.

6. Make sure your child changes clothes after school. This will make them forget some of the stress they feel at school.

7. If your child has difficulty with focusing and maintaining attention, or if it takes ages for them to finish homework, it would be useful to use a timer to break down his activities. Remind your child to finish one task before starting up another. Take regular breaks and put some goals with your child (e.g. to finish homework faster). Reward your child when they achieve a goal but remember, every child is different and some need more time than others.

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8. Avoid too much sugar in your child’s diet to limit hyperactivity.

9. Finally, address problems fast. Have regular contact with teachers, tutors, speech therapists etc. Exchange e-mail addresses, phone numbers and build a partnership with this team of professionals so that you are all working towards the same goals.

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