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Dick de Partille has a disability, which means that he is on the intellectual level of a young child. She cannot express herself in words and needs help 24 hours a day not to worry.
Four years ago, he was placed in an LSS home in western Sweden, which according to his own statement responds to “anxiety, stress and complex behaviors calmly.”
But shortly after the move, Dick’s aunt, also a good husband, Emma, noticed that all was not well. Dick’s mood quickly deteriorated, but when he pointed this out to the accommodation manager, staff and owner, he must have been sure that everything was as it should be. Dick was fine.
Processed personnel
Emma was not satisfied with the answers and finally decided to place a hidden recording equipment in Dick’s room. What he heard then overcame his worst fears.
– I had to turn it off because I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t play it for my mother, because I didn’t think she could do it, Emma tells “Homework Review.”
The audio recordings include how parts of the staff threaten Dick with physical punishment, and at one point water is poured on him.
Staff: “Who is it that decides this Dick? Who decides? ME!
Meanwhile, Dick is heard screaming in despair.
On another occasion, staff is described as putting a bag on Dick and then putting himself in the bag. The staff in question, a man in his 20s, has left the residence. In May, he was charged with harassment.
During questioning, another staff member testified that the man knelt on the duffel bag and “bounced up and down” on Dick’s chest. He sensed that Dick was panicking.
The defendant denies the crime. The verdict falls on October 26.
Common abuse
When SVT Nyheter Väst first reported on the incident, the accommodation manager, Martin Linde-Rahr, reacted with dismay. He described it as “a cold shower”.
But in the follow-up report to the Assignment review, his attitude is different. In another covert recording, he defends his staff and the use of the sacco bag.
– You say it’s just a negative experience that the stock market is there, I’m not so sure it is, he says in the segment.
At the same time, he describes the hidden sound recording that revealed the misconduct as “offensive.”
The image that emerges in “Assignment Review” is also that what affected Dick is not an isolated phenomenon. Far from. The program states that the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, IVO, can receive a large number of reports of abuse in LSS homes every year across the country. These are physical punishment, rape and personnel who come to work under the influence of drugs. In several cases, they have previously been convicted of crimes.
However, subsequent investigations have in common that they rarely have consequences for the activities in which the abuse was committed.
“It is systematic”
Nils Altermark, a disability policy researcher at Lund University, is interviewed in “Assignment Review.” He believes that there is a difference between how LSS legislation is formulated and how it is actually enforced.
– Says people in LSS target groups are full citizens, they should be given as much self-determination as possible, as much influence as possible on how efforts should be designed. But within LSS, the notion has developed that these people cannot get all the rights that they in fact have by law, says Altermark, continuing:
– This is not an individual case that you have reported. There is a point where we have to start to realize that this is happening, it is systematic.
The report “Dick’s Cry for Help” on “Assignment Review” airs at 8:00 PM Wednesday on SVT1. The program can also be seen SVT Playback.
