learning disability institution,finaly feeling some closure

several months ago we were driving past an old haunt of mine,and had asked staff if we coud stop in the car park so was able to get some photos.

at age nineteen,had been moved into a learning disability institution in manchester because mums alcohol drinking was getting worse and dad wasnt able to cope with em on his own.
a lot of people complain about LD institutions a lot but this one had been incredible,it was its own little community within a community,lots of land and trees around it which acted as sound proofing-  unfortunately the same quality coudnt be said for the staff,most of whom were severely abusive oldskool evil twats.

some years back,the UK government had decided to close all learning disability institutions down out of the belief that every one of us in the UK with learning disability [that is,the UK definition,not american/DSM,before anyone thinks am suggesting people with dyslexia,dyspraxia etc need to live in institutions] are able access community living,unfortunately in their quest to look progressive they didnt properly check that out first,many of us are unsuited to community living.
without any transitions was quickly transfered to a residential home without risk assessment and it was an absolute hell hole in terms of understanding,accomodating needs of mine and how they allowed a resident to bully all of us and get what she wants for an easy life,when em hit back at her it was em that was transfered to new residentials over and over and over to the same kind of environments; never risk assessing acording to what was told.

the institution was the first place had ever lived away from the family home,it was the first place had ever had the slightest bit of independance,it was the first place was able to say had made it,am not going to be stuck being cared for by mum and dad for the rest of life like doctors and teachers always said.

was also badly abused in there for years......there was a lot of unfinished business, never having had closure.
going there and getting the picture was some closure,it helps to look at it.
am amazed its still in the same condition,except they have fenced off what used to be the respite wing, and the ambulance bays in the car park at the front have faded away.
anyway,here it is,the view of [what was] the reception,the managers offices [at the top floor] and the respite wing-

'retard' also gets the boot from the drug manufacturers

a medication of mine that have been on for many,many years has aparently, finaly got with the programe and realised how ancient the name is.

tegretol retard, aka slow release.
http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/news/drugwatch/tegretol-products
am almost certain on the blister packs from boots it still says tegretol retard though.

now if only society woud listen to our side of how this word is so deeply embeded with hatred, discrimination,prejudice,beliefs of burdenism,and dehumanization for us,as well as being one of many labels that has deeply affected the lives of those of us who have intelectual disability.
those of us in the UK are pretty lucky in that we are diagnosed with learning disability,and have had a smaller   list of slurs used on us by teachers,people in america is one example where intelectualy disabled people are not so lucky-'mental retardation' and 'retarded' led to a far worser belief of burdenism,it led to hitlers labeling of us as being 'useless eaters', emptying the many residential homes of intelectualy disabled people to gas them.
many well known old jailed pyschopaths said they deliberately picked 'the mentaly retarded' from american residential homes because they were not cared about or followed up on.

this is why we need awareness of retard/mentaly retarded/whatever way want to use it,it has fuck all to do with stopping peoples speech but is all to do with being aware of how damaging language can be,having at least the bare minimum of respect for each other and giving us the same equal worth as gay people and people of a different skin colour- most people who complain about people using nasty words towards these groups are the same people who fling around retarded to describe something stupid someone they know did,
that is associating the offensive stereotypes of our disability and attaching it to some action that we woud never do.

when was an unfortunate resident of an manchester LD institution,was the first person to go into the permenent stay wing who was on this version of tegretol and the first thing all the bastards said upon seeing the rack of medication blisters was 'ohhhh....tegretol retard....they coudnt have named it any better for her',all of them hypocrites of course because they denied all disabilities of mine due to the fact was able to turn a computer on.

that place was ran by a bunch of sadistic motherfucking frankie boyles,who didnt give a shit about respect or care.
they all stuck up  for each other when complaints were made.
they better hope they dont end up severely disabled and also unable to communicate, god help them when they end up in an old folks home being treated like worthless vegetables.