Page 10 - Community Living Magazine 34-3

pHoTogrApHy pHoTogrApHy
SHoUlD STAff
ll of us I suspect are They cheerfully showed me a sheet of an interesting job of trying to take the camera. He is grinning and has
A ambivalent about DIScoUrAgE pEoplE stickers they had already prepared pictures of a lively wheelchair dance flung his arms wide in a gesture which
having our photos taken. saying “No Photos”. They then went with people spinning round the room clearly says “it’s good to be alive”.
There’s no doubt that a from HAVINg THEIr around dishing them out and not and weaving in and out of each other For me (and not just for me) this photo
good photo can be a lovely surprisingly quite a few people took at some speed, while trying to avoid provided some real consolation:
thing and we all insist on pHoToS TAKEN? them. I found myself wondering if it was taking any pictures of just one of them. yes he had died before his time but
photography at significant just an easy way for the staff to be seen I managed ok… but still I want to here was absolute proof that he had
times in our lives such as You could be helping to make people to be encouraging self-assertiveness. know why? What good did it do that been alive and that he had also
weddings. At other times It seems a pity if the only obvious way woman to not make a record of her enjoyed life.
though it can be a mixed with learning disabilities invisible says to assert yourself is by saying ‘no’. shrieking with glee as she whirled
blessing. If you have ever Seán Kelly around with her dancing partners? bitter-sweet
checked facebook the Visual record Do people think she will gain some I have myself quite often been asked
chances are you have It also made me think about the result: kind of extra protection from the fact for photos of someone after they have
found some less than Cold feet As a freelance I have been to lots no visual record of someone’s presence that there are no photos of her at died. It is a bitter-sweet duty to try to
flattering photographs of Not long ago I was working for a of events, including parties and at an event. Why is that good? I think that moment (for I was the only person find good pictures of them, but it is
yourself posted by your charity and a woman with learning celebrations, run by different it leads to a kind of invisibility. taking photos)? clear that a nice photograph does
‘friends’. If you haven’t disabilities had agreed to have her organisations. Often a member of really help those who have been
checked facebook… well, picture taken but had then developed staff will ask if everyone is ok What about people who can’t decide We all know that photos can affect bereaved. How often in such
they are probably still last-minute cold feet. I showed her having their pictures taken. “If you’re for themselves? At another event a us deeply. My brother-in-law died a circumstances do we try to piece
there but you just don’t some of the other shots taken that day not please tell the photographer”. member of staff told me I was not few years ago of leukaemia. together the course of a life using
know it! and she relented on the condition that I think it’s a good start – let’s make allowed to take a picture of a woman There was a lovely photo of him on the photographs left behind?
she could view (and veto) the results. sure that everyone is happy to be in a wheelchair who was just the front of the order of service at So my final question: how is anyone
As a freelance photographer, I have After promising her control of the photographed. Sometimes though staff joining in a kind of barn-dance made the funeral. It showed him only a few going to do that for the woman that I
a lot of sympathy with the people I delete button she gradually relaxed will go further and it almost seems up of six people in wheelchairs. months before, in the warm Italian wasn’t allowed to photograph?
meet who tell me they hate having their and the pictures got better. She knew as if they are using their influence to I asked why not? Her answer was sunshine which he loved so much. Sorry, the picture of her dancing a
pictures taken. Sometimes with a bit it too, commenting on the final picture encourage people with learning that it was “against the law”. I never The doctors had told him not to go historic six-person wheelchair
of good lighting and a bit of patience “Yeah, that one’s alright. I like that disabilities to refuse to be found out which law it was against on holiday abroad but somehow he barn-dance is not available.
I have been able to take photos which one”. So that was a good day for me photographed. I arrived at one event but I think it was because the woman had managed it. In the photo he has
pleasantly surprise them. as well as for her. to find the staff in the office. could not give consent. So I then had turned to smile at my sister who has www.seankellyphotos.com

Continued from page 7 SQUArINg THE people they are matched with is to create Recruiting volunteers from a because Kathy, who she had been assessed for a new wheelchair to
develop. Good help also requires cIrclE for a relationship not defined by pay, geographical distance, when you have befriended, recently had her molars be provided with extra support, as well
to improve their quality of life and be
as a table attachment for mealtimes.
removed and the staff informed Nerys
no local knowledge or contacts is not
good, valued and principled their eyes and ears and voice. easy; neither is finding people who have that unless there are complications, the A meeting to look at options for a ‘soft
leadership of organisations and VUlNErAblE pEoplE the time as well as the humanity to make dentist had finished his work. Kathy is chair’ for Nathaniel has also been
investment in nurturing innovation in Volunteers are making a real When I came into post in June 2014, a relationship with a person with complex 66; as Nerys says, surely she has a agreed. Well done, Mark.
teams. Good help isn’t always just difference, says Sarah reilly there was one lonely but loyal volunteer. needs. Most of the service users referred right to dentures so she can chew her
paid support. In May 2016 the team of CoP to CoP are non-verbal, on the autism food properly, as well as for cosmetic I’ve worked in advocacy for 15 years.
espite the shock and volunteer befrienders and advocates spectrum, and have mental health issues considerations. Kathy has the com- CoP is one of the most useful projects I
Let’s prevent the D horror of Winterbourne came to The Elfrida Society from as well as profound learning disabilities; munication skills and capacity to make have been involved with. It is a creative
need for ATUs View there are still thousands around the country, to meet each other most have spent their lives in institutions. this decision, but no one asked her. and innovative application of the
To prevent ATUs having a place in of service users miles away for the first time, to share learning and For many years Kathy had to share a advocacy principle. Sadly, it is unique;
society in the future please start to plan from the inner London experience, and a meal. As I looked at The power of advocacy toothbrush with other ‘patients’ in the other London boroughs have been
in person-centred ways with children – boroughs with accountability. everyone sitting around the table I could You may remember Jack Brown, I wrote long-stay hospital. We have progressed interested in the model but have yet to
the earlier the better. These people are some of the see how well the model works. But I am about him in Community Living Volume to providing people in residential care develop this service.
most vulnerable members of jumping ahead. 29. Jack was in a wheelchair with no with their own toothbrushes but in some
In Control finished a year-long our society but most receive way of communicating his needs. cases we seem not to have progressed Some of the CoP achievements
project this spring; ‘Me, My Family, only one statutory visit a Holding my nerve By doing a quick drawing of mood faces much further. Nerys and I are on the are profound and include reductions
My Home, My Friends, My Life’ year, often by a duty social Following the two year pilot The Elfrida I found he could read an image; the case; we may need support from in medications and improved
http://www.in-control.org.uk/news/ worker who knows no more Society was granted an extension for a home manager was amazed. I asked Kathy’s social worker but if Kathy wants safeguarding. Other successes may
in-control-news/’me,-my-family, about them than what they year which came to an end in March her to create a bespoke communication dentures, Kathy shall have them. be considered mere details but for most
-my-home,-my-friends,-and-my-life’- read in the previous review. 2016. Working with uncertainty is passport; the picture Jack pointed to most of us it is the small things that make a
report-published.aspx. difficult, but as the deadline approached often was the cup of tea. Sadly Jack died Mark is a new CoP advocate; he is difference to our lives; and when our
As some of you know from my I held my nerve and continued to recruit recently but when he was in hospital retired but was the keyworker for lives are restricted, by illness, age or
It’s pretty clear that doing all the previous Community Living articles*, volunteers. I needed to prove to the his befriender brought him photographs Nathaniel for eight years. Nathaniel, disability, they make a big impact.
things talked about in this article with Circles of Protection (CoP) began in Islington commissioners that the CoP of London in the 1930s. He loved the who has cerebral palsy, is a big man
children will prevent the need for 2013 as a two-year pilot between model works and was worth paying for. photograph of a London bus; when his and leans heavily to one side of his Sarah Reilly is Co-ordinator of the Elfrida
ATUs in the future. Islington Council and The Elfrida My monitoring officer was thorough and befriender left he was still clutching it wheelchair, making his condition worse. Society’s Circles of Protection Project.
Society. The intention of the project was demanding, she believed in the work. with a broad smile on his face. He has been waiting for an appoint- All names have been changed.
Sam Sly is currently a freelance to recruit local volunteers to match with I am extremely grateful to her as ment with the wheelchair service for
consultant for her organisation vulnerable people with learning Islington Council has granted The While writing this article I received an a long time. Mark understands health *Out of borough but not out of mind,
Enough is Enough. disabilities living in residential care Elfrida Society a CoP contract for the email from Nerys, a CoP befriender/ and social care; he also understands 29, 1, Does Olu’s story point to racism in
Email: sam.sly@enoughisenough.org.uk out of borough. Their role for the next four years. advocate in Sussex; Nerys is concerned Nathaniel’s needs. Nathaniel has now our services? 29, 2.

8 Vol 29 No 4 | Summer 2016 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 29 No 4 | Summer 2016 9