CASCAIDr's 2022 Access to Justice Walk
At CASCAIDr we'll be covering 10k on Tuesday 28th June in support of legal advice services that are central to people's wellbeing and life chances.
Our team is: Belinda Schwehr, Dave Haines, Fiona Bateman, James Wheildon, Sarah Williams, Simon West, Phil Robinson, Sue Inker, Clare Woodall, Alexandra Domingue,?Nsiem Akhtar.
We're walking with the Lord Chief Justice and thousands of lawyers to raise funds for the?London Legal Support Trust. The Trust's work funds Law Centres and pro bono advice organisations, in and around London. CASCAIDr is one of those organisations.
Please click here to visit our donation page if you are already convinced we're worth it!
Our speciality is helping people who are struggling to get their full legal entitlement to funded care and support services. They might be people with physical or learning disabilities, a long-term illness, a mental ill-health problem. These people HAVE rights, but can't get them, because the health and social care sector has become hollowed out of staff and managers who actually know anything about the legal framework governing their work.
Our theme this year
This year, we're focusing on the shocking reality that over 2000 people - who are not necessarily mentally ILL - are detained in psychiatric hospitals, in this country,?because there is not the concern, the political will, nor adequate understanding of what's necessary for organising adequate and appropriate care and support, in the community, for people who are simply 'different'. This is the 'Transforming Care' cohort of patients, some of whom have been stuck for 10-20 YEARS - people with learning disabilities, people with autism, or a mixture of these issues.
What they're even doing, stuck in hospitals which admit that there is nothing that would be seen as 'treatment' even being provided FOR these people, is a shameful and burning question, to anyone working in health and social care and politicians, local and central, we think.
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Under the Care Act,?a duty is a duty, and the cost of a care plan is not an excuse for not meeting the needs, if there's?only?one?defensible?adequate?way to meet them.
The same goes for what is due for people who are entitled to NHS continuing heath care status.
But the Mental Health Act aftercare function,?for those who've been sectioned under s3 of the Mental Health Act, but are fit for discharge, is a?duty to use 'best endeavours' only, to make arrangements for that aftercare. So, these people tend to remain detained, because nobody asks for evidence?in s117 planning meetings?of the efforts made to secure the housing and care to get them out, or whether those efforts were cost-capped, in advance. And nobody uses judicial review regarding the relevance of cost-saving initiatives!?
We'll be posting 10 days' worth of information and suggestions, to illustrate the momentum and impact for real change that can be generated by legal awareness, applied at the right time, for people in this shameful situation.
So, this year, we'll be looking at?
Please sponsor our walkers as generously as you can. We need to make ￡10K in order to do the work that many law firms are refusing to offer, because it is simply unaffordable. Many thanks for your support.
Belinda Schwehr, CASCAIDr