We closed the mental health

facilities and other residential facilities too.

We put vulnerable people "out in the community" on the grounds that they need to be "like everyone else" and "treated with dignity". We are told we must not emphasise differences but similarities.

I went to visit the Senior Cat yesterday. Middle Cat and I take it in turns to do this, sometimes we will even both go in. He has reached the stage where he is simply lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He likes us "just to be here"...so we go. We often come out close to tears. He is and yet is not the father we knew and still love. 

When we go we need to do a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) every 48 hours. It's time consuming. It is expensive. It can also cause some unexpected conversations. 

The residence manager gave me the RAT materials to do my own and asked if I would mind showing someone else what to do. It wasn't going to take any more of my time so of course I agreed. And the woman and I had a conversation. Her husband is in the facility but her sister is in another one. It was her sister who was of particular interest to me. Her sister is intellectually disabled and has been since birth. She has been living in an aged care residence for some years now. Was she happy there?

"Oh she loves it. The staff give her little jobs to do. She feels useful." That's good, very good. If she is happy to fold the laundry and so on I am sure it is good for her to be occupied.

But then the woman talking to me went on, "And she has actually made some friends there. I wasn't sure at first but there are several other intellectually disabled people there and they seem to get on really well together. H...actually told me that she had found some people like herself and it was lovely."

We discussed this some more. It seems her sister recognises that she is intellectually disabled and has welcomed the company of others with an intellectual capacity similar to her own. They do things together. They help one another where they can. H... has apparently told her sister, "They are people like me."

Not far from here there is what used to be called a "sheltered workshop" for people with a range of disabilities. Over the years I have known many of the people who have worked there. I taught some of them, others have become known to me by other routes. Almost all of them have worked at the facility for many years. Are they happy there? It would seem so. There are regular contracts for the place but there is plenty of variety. One of them reminded me last week that they would soon be doing an annual job they are particularly fond of doing. Is he happy working there? He has been there for over twenty years and still doesn't like "holidays". He has friends there - something he never had when he was "integrated" into the mainstream school system.

There are pros and cons of "integration" into schools and into the community, of course there are. But I often wonder about the "integration is best" policy. I think of all the deaf people I have met over the years, people who find it incredibly difficult to mix with hearing people who do not understand their communication needs. As in many places the deaf here have their own community. They can and do support each other. Yes, they do mix with the wider community when they need to or, occasionally, because they wish to do so. Those I know are happy to try and communicate with me  - but both sides know it is not as easy as it could be and on the whole they are happier in their own community. They don't see themselves as disadvantaged; they are simply different.

And I wonder if people like H... may just feel the same way. Perhaps this insistence on "integration" is for the benefit of the apparently "normal" population. Does it make them feel less "guilty"?