Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

AADD-UK asks Gov't Minister for apology for stereotyping ADHD Adults

Roland | 07.10.2010 09:27

Paul Burstow seems to assume all adults with ADHD are criminals
Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services (Health), says the Government recognises childhood ADHD may continue into adulthood and that's why the Government will consider ADHD issues in the Criminal Justice system.

AADD-UK has written to him asking for a public apology for his contribution to the stigmatisation of adults with ADHD.
AADD-UK petitioned the previous Government for better NHS services for adults with ADHD because not only are services completely absent in some areas of the UK, where they do exist some are oversubscribed, and one even has a waiting list of 18 months. Even worse, in some areas Trusts are refusing to treat adults who were either diagnosed as children, or who were diagnosed for the first time as adults.

Paul Burstow's wrote in a letter to an MP and in an email that was sent to more than 1,000 people that the Government recognises concerns that childhood ADHD may continue into adulthood in some cases and that is why the Government is going to consider ADHD issues in the Criminal Justice programme.

As a result, AADD-UK has written to Mr Burstow, with copies to David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Andrew Lansley, asking that he apologise, in his capacity as lead for Equality and Human Rights, to all the recipients of his letter for his contribution to the negative stereotyping of adults with ADHD, and they have also asked that he publicly support NHS services for adults with ADHD.

Here is a copy of their letter:

Paul Burstow MP
Minister of State for Care Services (Health)
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS

6 October 2010

Dear Mr Burstow,

Response to petition for dedicated NHS funding for services for adults with ADHD

I am writing to you to express our very grave concerns with the discriminatory and stigmatising tone first in your letter to Mr John Penrose, MP (PO00000507382) in response to his query regarding the whereabouts of the above petition, and secondly in the response to the same petition by Her Majesty’s Government which was sent to 1,853 signatories; the latter matches your response to Mr Penrose word-for-word.

Please note that we will not be addressing the many medical inaccuracies contained in these responses, because it is our understanding that this will be addressed in a separate letter by medical professionals.

You say that “we recognise concerns that childhood ADHD may continue into adulthood in some cases. This is why we set up an ADHD research community within the Offender Health Research Network. . .” and so on. Your apparent assumption that all adults with ADHD are offenders has not only increased the considerable distress already being felt by people who are experiencing difficulties accessing NHS services (the reason for the petition), it also increases feelings of exclusion and stigmatisation thus making it less likely that people with ADHD will assert their rights to protection from direct and indirect discrimination.

We, therefore, respectfully suggest that in recompense you offer an apology on behalf of HM Government, as well as in your capacity as lead for Equality & Human Rights, to all signatories for your, hopefully inadvertent, contribution to the negative stereotyping of people with ADHD, and also publicly state that you support the provisions of services for adults with ADHD in accordance with NICE Guidelines CG72.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Chairwoman AADD-UK

cc: The Rt Hon David Cameron, MP
The Rt Hon Nick Clegg, MP
The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley, CBE MP
Mr John Penrose, MP

More information can be found on AADD-UK's website including a 32 page Summary of Evidence that was sent to the Government supporting AADD-UK's call for better services for adults with ADHD.



Roland
- Original article on IMC Bristol: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/694131

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech