🧵We are deeply appalled by the flawed restraint and seclusion guidance issued by the Department of Education (An Roinn Oideachais) in Ireland. This guidance poses significant risks to children and must not be implemented. #AgainstRestraint

10/10
For the past few years I’ve been coming to terms with the fact I’m not going to live as long as any of my friends from the constant stress I’m under having to ‘overcome my disability’.

Our ignorance of disability is not only ruining people’s lives, it’s killing them

9/10
I don’t know how I’ll last in any job if disabled people don’t get basic rights.

At this stage you pretty much have to ‘suck up being disabled’ until you pass probation. And even then you’re a problem.

8/10
If the org recognised and accommodated disability (which by law we should be doing) I could attend the meeting online, or a support person could come in the car with me and process the journey/directions etc. so I don’t need to do all the back and forth

7/10
And all of this is done for a meeting which if I don’t have that time in between to recover I’ll be completely burned out for.

For the rest of the day I’ll be on the verge of burnout and masking becomes significantly more difficult.

6/10
I also study the route on Google maps the night before. Look up places to park, look up toilets in the area, and look up other routes for if I get completely overwhelmed and need to get home immediately.

I give myself an extra hour to recover, or if I need to take a break

5/10
I did this repeatedly until I got close enough to walk to the meeting, making the journey several shorter journeys.

Walking over and back takes so much time and I still get caught in traffic so this system doesn’t completely prevent overwhelm.

4/10
I got out and walked to the next place I could park, and processed what the journey would look like between these places.

3/10
I left 4 hours before I needed to be there, drove as close to the city as I could then when overwhelm kicked in I parked somewhere a 100 minute walk away from where I needed to be

2/10
Today (again) I was asked to drive into the city…the number 1 thing I’m clear about not being able to do.

This is how I ‘overcame my disability’..🧵

1/10
My supervisor on placement seems to think autism and anxiety are pretty much the same thing, that environments that are extremely uncomfortable for sensory reasons are something I need to overcome to do my job.

Will you bring in the adult safeguarding laws?

Will you take a stance against ABA and get it out of our disability services?

We need adult safeguarding laws asap, a national adult safeguarding body as suggested by the law reform commission, and a lot of investment in educating social workers on disability, as well as staff in disability services both on understanding disability and safeguarding

The last org I worked for, which is one of the largest disability providers in the country had 1 social worker across 120 adult services (multiple people living in each service).

How are we supposed to protect adults from abuse with those numbers?

@paulmurphy.pbp.ie @chrispenderke.bsky.social

Can’t tag other parties I want to see in government because they’re not on here yet.

Would your parties support this for disabled people?

I met a social worker Friday who had a caseload in disability of 1,600 people.
20 cases per SW is too much

9/9 Just addressing carers pay while ignoring everything else is trying to cover up systematic abuse with a bandaid

8/9 I want to see real action, real engagement with disabled people.

What party will,

- Take a stance against ABA
- Promote trainings developed by disabled people (and allies)
- Bring in adult safeguarding laws
- Have a quota for hiring disabled people
- Eradicate oppressive practice

7/9 Out of all the political parties using the incident to promote their disability policies I haven’t seen any so far mention the Adult Safeguarding bill.

Not having adult safeguarding laws in 2024 is scandalous.

6/9 I just think before we start glorifying carers working in disability services we need to have real conversations about how awful services are.

Priority should be the disabled people first, oppressive policies, and then the paid staff.

5/9 The only training staff get to understand disability comes from ABA influenced courses like ‘PBS training’, ‘MAPA’, and even most autism courses are thought by behaviour specialists

But that shouldn’t stop you from doing your own research/training

4/9 There are good staff, but it’s really the minority. At best 1 in 10 staff don’t engage in harmful practice (1 in 10 is optimistic).

And far less actually understand disability.

3/9 That carer was really courageous to call out the Taoiseach and deserves utmost respect for that.

But glorifying all staff for the incredible work they do is a stretch.

In 7 years working in adult disability, every service I worked in I saw some level of abuse.

2/9 Adult disability services in Ireland are the pits. It’s the worst run sector in social care.

Both children and adult services is full of ABA, ABA managers, ABA therapists on the ground, multi-d’s, and ABA trainers

1/9 Came to Bluesky for a break because everyone on Twitter is talking about disability today after the Simon Harris comments, but everyone commenting on how bad Harris is also don’t know anything about disability 🫠

I love this so much 🔥

The whole reason I wanted to be a social worker is in this statement