Ways of seeing

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blindness, cane, disability, light adjustment, night vision, peripheral vision, retinitis pigmentosa, sight loss, visual field, visually impaired

Ways of seeing

Being different is bad. It’s a lesson most of us learn in the playground. Mercifully for society, it’s a lesson most of us go on to unlearn. But for some miserable unfortunates it sticks around. And, for me, it did more than stick. It got swallowed. It became physically part of me – like a filter, a lens through which I see the world.

When I was seven, my family moved to Tokyo. Mum enrolled me in a ballet class. We arrived at the dance studio to discover that none of the Japanese kids had ever seen a blonde girl before. I still have visions of that hall of mirrors, those armies of identical giggling ballerinas.

When I was 12, my family moved to Sydney. On my first day at school, the teacher asked me to stand in front of the class and tell them where I was from. So I did. Then she repeated my every word in a mock English accent. If I had to pinpoint the exact moment I learned my lesson, I’d say that was it. It was while living in Sydney that Mum began to notice I was having trouble seeing. I was always bumping into things – overhanging branches, toys left on the floor. Initially she found it funny, but after our first appointment with the ophthalmologist, she stopped laughing.

I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. It is a genetic disease that affects the parts of the eye that deal with peripheral vision, night vision and light adjustment. There is no way of knowing how quickly the condition degenerates into blindness. Some lose their sight before they turn 20 and some retain a small window of vision throughout their life. I was referred to a psychologist to help me digest the information and advised not to take my driving test. I was also advised to learn how to use a white cane.

In typical teenage fashion I told the psychologist where to stick it and reacted to the idea of a cane with such fury that my parents never dared raise the subject again. I would, quite honestly, have rather died than take a cane to school. Thankfully, I never had to. In fact, I didn’t have to tell anybody unless I chose to do so. My strategy of denial worked wonders – though I was terrible at netball. And most of the time I forgot I had a problem at all. Until I bumped into something. And then it would be a battle to hold back the tears.

I confided in my close friends and they took my arm as we strutted around Kings Cross on Saturday nights with our fake IDs. They led me into darkened pubs. They even helped me assess boys on dance floors using, as I recall, the terms: “hot”, “semi-hot” and “feral bush-pig”.

The enthusiasm with which these girls adapted to my strange disability was touching. And baffling. I never really understood why they didn’t just leave me at home.

But this happy arrangement was short-lived. I moved back to England for university and reverted to outright denial. I walked slowly and appeared vague. Fellow students thought I was permanently stoned, which was fine by me.

When I moved to London and began a career in television documentaries, I did everything I could to appear normal. Occasionally I’d miss a handshake and have no idea how to deal with it. It was the most stressful time of my life.

Today, aged 34, I have very little sight. While the average visual field spans 160 degrees, mine spans four degrees. I am registered blind with my local council. I know this sounds shocking. But it isn’t. I function pretty normally. I move my eyes around and get as much of the picture as I need. I’ve never been happier. I have a wonderful husband, a gorgeous two-year-old daughter and I love my work. The fact I bump into things a lot is very low on my list of worries.

I still don’t use a white cane. I’m not proud of this fact. I really ought to. I own one. It sometimes lives, folded up, in my handbag. I took it out for a spin the other day. I’d been inspired by comedian Adam Hills joking about the Paralympics on Channel 4.

I went back to Sydney recently. My friend Jane noticed my tinted glasses on an overcast day. “Are you wearing sunnies cause your future’s so bright?” she quipped.

Later, as we dined in Bondi, we were gossiping about a girl at school we had both admired. “She had something special. She had what you had,” said Jane. “What’s that?” I was taken by surprise. “I dunno,” said Jane, “She was from the outside. She was different.”

“Why do you think being different is bad?” asks Seema, a therapist who is helping me use my cane. “Some people love to be different.”

This makes me think of my Dad. When I was young, he would hold my hand and skip down the street singing in his native Italian. Mortified, I would beg him to stop. “For a girl who is so intelligent,” he would exclaim as I wriggled from his grasp, “you are emotionally stupid.”

Then I think of my tiny daughter. One rainy day, we were in a charity shop when she persuaded me to buy her a glittery snorkel mask. Later, as we walked through the downpour, she held her umbrella and wore that mask with such beautiful beaming pride that several strangers stopped to smile.

Seema explains that, when we are young, the lessons we learn can become embedded in our subconscious. They become almost physically part of us. Those feelings are deep and hard to shake – hard, but not impossible.

“Being different isn’t bad,” she says gently as we end our session. “Being different is a gift. It is something to be cherished.”

Report reveals postcode lottery of care for children with epilepsy

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Children, diagnosis, epilepsy, fainting, family, medication, misdiagnosis, MRI scan, seizure, support, symptoms, young people

Report reveals postcode lottery of care for children with epilepsy

Children who suffer from epilepsy face a “profoundly concerning” variability in the quality of care they receive, depending on where they live, according to a new report published today.

Epilepsy, which can have a devastating impact on educational attainment and badly disrupt the lives of sufferers, is the most common serious neurological condition diagnosed in the UK affecting one in 200 children or around 60,000 youngsters.

Charities called for urgent action after the first national audit of epilepsy services for young people found that barely half of families are offered the support of a qualified epilepsy nurse within a year of their child being diagnosed. The role is seen as vital in monitoring medication, advising schools that can be overly restrictive of children with the condition, and providing support to parents.

England offered the worst level of specialist nursing support, according to the survey of children’s NHS services conducted by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Only 47 per cent of units offered the service – compared with 77 per cent in Wales, 73 per cent in Scotland and 100 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Half of children diagnosed with epilepsy do not achieve their full educational potential, said the report’s author, consultant paediatrician Dr Colin Dunkley.

“We’ve seen marked steps forward in epilepsy care for children in recent years. The majority of children are now being seen by paediatricians with expertise and many are getting detailed diagnoses and being prescribed the most appropriate medicines first time. But there are certain areas that need to be improved if we’re to give children and young peopl e the best possible medical treatment and ongoing care.”

The report also found that a third of children were not adequately assessed at first, while more than seven out of 10 did not receive an MRI scan necessary to detect underlying causes of the condition.

Nearly half of those suffering from the more serious types of epilepsy did not see a paediatric neurologist when required, it was found.

Epilepsy is often very hard to diagnose with GPs and hospital emergency departments often lacking experience in recognising symptoms which can often be mistaken for fainting or other conditions

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing said advances in care had transformed the lives of children. “However, it is a matter of profound concern to us that this is not the case everywhere,” he said.

David Ford, chief executive of the charity Young Epilepsy, added: “More must be done, and quickly, if we are ever to make meaningful improvements to these young lives. The support received by young people with epilepsy just simply is not good enough. The effects of the condition can be devastating and should not be underestimated.”

Case study: ‘Suddenly she was having 20 fits a day’

There was nothing spectacular about my daughter’s first fit. In fact it took several weeks before we realised she was having them at all.

“There was no falling to the floor, frothing at the mouth or flailing of limbs, rather a brief rolling of the eyes and a vacant look. It was all over in a matter of seconds. We were on holiday in Norfolk when we eventually clocked that this was beyond normal weird five-year-old behaviour. From occasionally zoning out, suddenly she was having 20 in a single day. It was absolutely terrifying and we rushed her to hospital where she was diagnosed with childhood absence seizure.

“Because Lucy has speech and language delay she already had a paediatrician in York who we were able to phone the next morning. She arranged an EEG test for three weeks time in which electrical receptors are attached to the head to monitor the pattern of brain waves during an induced fit.

“The results came through a week later and we are now two weeks into a course of medication which should put an end to her fits. We have had excellent, prompt care. Our paediatrician offered us the services of a specialist epilepsy nurse and we are due to have an MRI scan. Having read the report I now realise we are among the lucky ones.

Footballer Gordon Banks and Sir Michael Parkinson reveal dementia heartbreak

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anxiety, awareness, carers, dementia, Depression, diagnosis, family, healthcare, memory loss, stigma, support, symptoms, treatment

Footballer Gordon Banks and Sir Michael Parkinson reveal dementia heartbreak

Former England footballer Gordon Banks and Sir Michael Parkinson have relived their heartbreaking personal experiences with dementia to inspire the nation to reduce the stigma about the condition.

The pair, alongside broadcaster Fiona Phillips, are also encouraging people who think they have any symptoms of the condition to seek medical advice.

New research from Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) found that a quarter of people hide their diagnosis because of negative connotations surrounding dementia.

Phillips, whose parents both had dementia, said if her mother had been diagnosed earlier then she could have handled the situation better.

“I would have been able to plan more for mum instead of doing everything in a big rush,” she said.

“Our house always smelt of baking when we were little and I used to love helping mum make cakes and there were always cakes in the tin.

“She rung me up at 3am one morning crying her eyes out and she said: ‘I’ve forgotten how to make cakes’. And my childhood went then.”

Sir Michael said: “The ultimate problem you have to face with anyone who has any form of dementia is that you lose them before they die.

“I lost my mother 18 months to a year before she died and that is the ultimate desperate tragedy.”

Banks, whose brother David suffered from the condition, recalled: “We sat in the lounge talking to him and we would ask him a question and he would just go blank – he wouldn’t answer it – he couldn’t remember what we were discussing.”

The trio have joined a government campaign to increase early diagnosis rates for dementia.

The new campaign, which is part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to help change people’s understanding of dementia, has been launched today on World Alzheimer’s Day.

Ministers hope it will raise awareness of the condition, what initial signs and symptoms look like and how to seek help.

Mr Cameron said: “Dementia is a devastating disease that puts enormous strain on people and their families.

“Shockingly, nearly 400,000 people are unaware that they have the condition and so we want to make sure more people know what dementia is and how to spot those tell-tale signs.

“With the number of sufferers set to rise in the years ahead, I am determined that we go much further and faster on dementia.

“That’s why I launched a Challenge on Dementia in March, doubling the research budget and working across society to improve health and care, and supporting people to live well with the condition.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt added: “Our goal is to make this country a world leader in tackling the challenge of dementia.

“That requires us all to play our part, including being brave enough to start conversations about dementia to get our loved ones the early help we know makes a difference.

“Awareness is just the first step towards tackling the stigma around this condition and we need to work together if we’re going to help those living with dementia have a better quality of life.”

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Talking to a loved one about dementia will probably be one of the most difficult conversations you ever have, but it will be worth it.

“Early diagnosis is crucial in helping people with dementia to access the support and help they need to live well with the condition.”

Research, released today by the ADI, also found that three quarters of people and 64% of carers believe that there are negative associations for those diagnosed with dementia.

The report, based on a survey of 2,500 sufferers and carers from 50 countries, also found that two-fifths of people say they have been avoided or treated differently because they have dementia.

Marc Wortmann, executive director at ADI, added: “Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease continue to grow at a rapid rate due to global ageing.

“The disease has a huge impact on the families that are hit, but also affects health and social systems because of the economic cost.

“Countries are not prepared and will continue not to be prepared unless we overcome the stigma and enhance efforts to provide better care for those who have dementia and find a cure for the future.”

Initial signs of dementia, which is caused by diseases of the brain, may include short term memory loss that affects every day life, problems with thinking or reasoning or unexplained anxiety or depression.

The UK’s dementia research charity has also pledged to give £5.5 million to fund scientists researching the condition.

Alzheimer’s Research UK said the money will go towards 52 new grants aimed at understanding the causes of dementia, improving diagnosis and finding new treatments and preventions.

More:

Fiona Phillips-A Day to Remember for World Alzheimer’s Day

Michael Parkinson- A Day to Remember

Gordon Banks- A Day to Remember

NSPCC: A qualitative study of children, young people and ‘sexting’

Tags

Children, sexting, young people

NSPCC: A qualitative study of children, young people and ‘sexting’

The Untold Story of Childhood Sight Loss

Tags

anxiety, blindness, Children, confidence, Depression, loneliness, sight loss, support, visually impaired, young people

The Untold Story of Childhood Sight Loss

People often ask me what the worst thing about being blind is. My response to them is that you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is not being able to see. But actually there is an untold story when it comes to the dark reality of sight loss, particularly childhood sight loss.

I am the chief executive of a charity called The Royal London Society for Blind People and we work with blind young people every day. They tell us that it is not the lack of full sight that is the problem, but the lack of confidence, resilience, friends and hope for the future.

If one was to talk to blind young people, you will find that by the age of six they are already beginning to limit their horizons. By the time they are 19 they are telling us that they are lonely, their parents do too much for them, they don’t know how to be cool, and that they are extremely worried about their future.

The stats speak for themselves: 40% of blind and partially sighted young people don’t have any local friends to play with, and 80% say that they have little hope for what life holds. We believe a quarter of blind children under the age of 12 are depressed.

One young teen called Lee* spoke to us about his experiences. Lee was the only visually impaired person at his high school and for a long time he was lonely and depressed because he couldn’t go out and do the same things as his sighted friends.

Since joining one of RLSB’s Social & Peer Groups, Lee is much happier and more confident about what he can achieve. And in his own words: “I don’t feel so alone”.

Lee was lucky to get the help and support he needed. But what happens if blind young people do not get the right support? We need to look at how their adult counter-parts are fairing:

• 66% of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age are not in employment

• Two thirds live on the poverty line

• More than 30% will live with clinical depression and a further 30% will live with severe anxiety

This is not the aspiration that any mum or dad has for their child.

It’s time to face up to the fact that this is the real problem that faces blind young people today. Despite the continued investment that has gone into supporting blind and partially sighted young people and their families, very little has changed in terms of their life chances despite our best efforts.

It’s deplorable that this is still the case in 21st century Britain, which is why we have launched The Untold Story awareness campaign. The campaign is asking the public to reconsider what they think the challenges around childhood sight loss are. Adverts on the London Underground and played out on Classic FM tell what we know to be the real story about a blind young person’s experience of growing up.

We are asking the public for their support in helping us to tell the untold story. All they need to do is copy and paste #ICanSeeLee and I’m sharing his story: http://www.rlsb.org.uk/lee to their Facebook status and Twitter feed.

By sharing the message we hope that the issue will be bought to the attention of tens of thousands of people who in turn can support RLSB and help us bring about real change through life changing interventions, such as our peer groups.

This campaign is about telling the country that as a society we are failing young blind and partially sighted people and it’s time to change the record. That it’s a time for a life without limits for blind young people.

*Name has been changed

Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers

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abuse, Children, crime, police, rape, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual predators, vulnerability, women, young people

June 2012:

Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers

Sexual predators in the police are abusing their power to target victims of crime they are supposed to be helping, as well as fellow officers and female staff, the Guardian can reveal.

An investigation into the scale and extent of the problem suggests sexual misconduct could be more widespread than previously believed.

The situation raises questions about the efficacy of the police complaints system, the police’s internal whistleblowing procedures, the vetting of officers and a failure to monitor disciplinary offences.

Police officers have been convicted or disciplined for a range of offences from rape and sexual assault to misconduct in public office relating to inappropriate sexual behaviour with vulnerable women they have met on duty. Others are awaiting trial for alleged offences, though many are never charged with a criminal offence and are dealt with via internal disciplinary procedures.

The problem is to a large extent hidden, as no official statistics are kept and few details are released about internal disciplinary action in such cases.

By analysing the data available – including court cases and misconduct proceedings – the Guardian has attempted to document the scale of the corruption for the first time.

In the past four years, there were 56 cases involving police officers and a handful of community support officers who either were found to have abused their position to rape, sexually assault or harass women and young people or were investigated over such allegations.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) are so concerned they are carrying out a rare joint inquiry into the scale of the problem, which will be published in September, the Guardian can reveal.

Their work was prompted by the case of the Northumbria police constable Stephen Mitchell, 43, who was jailed for life in January 2011 for carrying out sex attacks on vulnerable women, including prostitutes and heroin addicts, while he was on duty.

Despite being the subject of previous disciplinary offences, involving one inappropriate relationship with a woman and the accessing of the force computer to find private details of an individual, Mitchell had not been subjected to extra supervision or dismissed by the force.

Those targeted by the officers are predominantly women, but in some cases are children and young people, many of them vulnerable victims of crime.

The Guardian’s investigation has uncovered evidence of:

• Vetting failures, including a concern that vetting procedures may have been relaxed post-2001 during a surge in police recruitment.

• Concerns over the recording and monitoring of disciplinary offences as officers progress through their career.

• A tendency for women who complain they have been sexually attacked by a policeman not to be believed.

• A pervasive culture of sexism within the police service, which some claim allows abusive behaviour to go unchecked.

Debaleena Dasgupta, a lawyer who has represented women sexually assaulted and raped by police officers, said: “I don’t think any [victims] are quite as damaged as those who are victims of police officers.

“The damage is far deeper because they trusted the police and … believed that the police were supposed to protect them from harm and help catch and punish those who perpetrate it.

“The breach of that trust has an enormous effect: they feel that if they can’t trust a police officer, who can they trust? They lose their confidence in everyone, even those in authority. It is one of the worst crimes that can be committed and when committed by an officer, becomes one of the greatest abuses of power.”

The officers involved come from all ranks within the service: the most senior officer accused of serious sexual harassment was a deputy chief constable, who was subject to 26 complaints by 13 female police staff.

David Ainsworth, deputy chief constable of Wiltshire police, killed himself last year, an inquest heard this month, during an inquiry into his behaviour. He is one of two officers accused of sexual misconduct to have taken their own lives over the past four years.

In one of the worst cases in the past four years, Trevor Gray, a detective sergeant with Nottinghamshire police, broke into the home of a woman he met on a date and raped her while her young child slept in the house.Gray was jailed for eight years in May for rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.

Many of the cases documented involve police officers accessing the police national computer to gain access to the details of vulnerable women and young people in order to bombard them with texts and phone calls and initiate sexual contact.

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson of Merseyside police, the Acpo lead on counter-corruption, who is working with the IPCC on the joint report, said: “Police officers who abuse their position of trust have an incredibly damaging impact on community confidence in the service.

“There is a determination throughout policing to identify and remove those who betray the reputation of the overwhelming majority of officers.”

In its report on corruption within the police service published last month, the IPCC identified abuse of authority by officers for their own personal gain, including to engage in sexual intercourse with a vulnerable female while on duty, and the misuse of computer systems to access details of vulnerable females, as two of the five key corruption threats to the service.

IPCC figures show that 15% of the 837 corruption cases referred by forces to the watchdog between 2008 and 2011 involved abuse of authority by a police officer, and 9% involved misuse of systems.

Clare Phillipson, director of Wearside Women in Need, who supported some of Mitchell’s victims, said: “What you have here is the untouched tip of an iceberg in terms of sexually questionable behaviour and attitudes. The police service, in my experience, has an incredibly macho culture and women are seen as sexual objects.

“Police officers have a duty to steer away from vulnerable women in distress, some of whom see these police officers as their saviours. It is an abuse of their power to exploit that.”

One area to be examined by the IPCC is whether there might have been vetting failures from 2001 onwards during a massive recruitment drive in the police.

Between 2001 and 2007, the overall strength of the service grew by more than 16,000, with around 2,666 officers recruited each year on average.

Six years ago, a study of vetting within the police service by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary revealed “disturbing” failures that had allowed suspect individuals to join the service. The report, Raising the Standard, exposed more than 40 vetting failures among police officers and support staff. The report concluded: “The potential damage that can be caused by just one failure should not be underestimated.”

Update: Sexual predators in police ‘must be rooted out’

Campaign to unlock secrets of people who go missing

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adults, disappear, family, mental health issues, missing persons, parents, project, relationships

Campaign to unlock secrets of people who go missing

When Laura’s daughter asked about her grandparents, Laura said they were dead, killed in an accident she preferred not to discuss. “It is a terrible, horrible, lie,” Laura admits. “My daughter will inevitably discover the truth and when she does I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me.”

Despite her fears, Laura has repeated the story to her friends, her partner and his family. One lie has led to another and now, she admits, her life is built on deception. “I exist on a cliff edge. I’m very frightened. I have constructed my life on something that will inevitably crumble.”

The truth is that Laura’s parents are not dead but living 175 miles away; a train journey of two hours.

Since the night 12 years ago when Laura tiptoed down the stairs of her family home and shut the door behind her, she has neither seen nor spoken to her parents. She has no intention of doing so again. She has never told anyone about her past before, and does not give her real name.

Approximately 327,000 missing person reports – 110,000 of them concerning adults – are made to UK police each year. It amounts to almost 900 reports a day.

Despite the numbers, though, the world of the “missing” is shrouded in mystery: there is no research into why adults choose to go missing, how they disappear, where they go, and why they do, or do not, come back.

That, however, is about to change. Monday marks the nationwide launch of the first project, in the UK and internationally, to examine the hidden, secret, landscape of adults who choose to go missing.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the project, entitled Geographies of Missing People, is a collaboration between experts at Glasgow and Dundee Universities, the Metropolitan police service and Grampian police.

For more than two years researchers have traced and interviewed “missing” people. They are now using a website to ask those with experience of being missing to post their story. “This is a nationwide call for the missing to tell their stories,” said Hester Parr, principal investigator in the project. “There is no organisation that represents adults who choose to go missing. They have no way of being in contact with each other and so can find it very difficult to make sense of what has happened. This is a chance for those without a voice to tell their story.”

Parr and her colleagues spoke at length to families, police, police-based researchers, forensic scientists, academics and representatives of Missing People, an independent UK charity.

In a field parched of evidence-based research, the project has hit a nerve. The UK Missing Persons Bureau, the Police National Search Centre, and the National Policing Improvement Agency, say the findings will be used to train police, inform government policy and design services to support those who disappear and their families.

In the next few months there will also be conferences in the UK, Brussels and US for police officers to get together alongside researchers, families, and people who have returned.

Parr said police so far had relied “on the slightly nebulous, professional, hunches that come from years of experience”.

He added: “The lack of research means that those who go missing have no guidance on how to let their families know they’re okay or how to return home. Families also find it difficult to know what to do [or how to talk about the situation] when someone comes home.”

Many of the 216,000 individuals of all ages who go missing every year are resolved by police; just 2,500 people remain untraced more than a year after they disappear.

But that can still mean people do not return home and that families are not told if their loved one is alive or safe.

A closed case simply means the police are confident that no crime took place.

Few of the missing people traced by the Missing People charity do choose to go home. “Instead the missing person is able to rebuild relationships without their family finding out where they live, or being in direct contact with them,” said Martin Houghton-Brown, chief executive of the charity. “It doesn’t mean happy families but it enables people to accept someone has gone.

Laura, for example, only reluctantly agreed that the police could tell her parents she was alive. “It wasn’t that I wanted, or want, to hurt them, but I couldn’t bear it any longer and I still feel the same.”

Laura was 21 when she found she was pregnant. Her boyfriend of two years said he wanted nothing to do with a baby, and her parents said an abortion was her only option. She bought a train ticket to a neighbouring county, rented a room and got a pub job. She lived day to day, waiting for the police to knock on her door and force her to go back.

When she tried to pay her first month’s rent, she found her bank account frozen. The bank said she had been reported missing, and needed to talk to the police. “I thought they would make me go home,” she said.

But they didn’t. They gave her a cup of tea, told her she had the right to go missing, and asked her permission to tell her parents she was safe, but that she was not going back.

Laura is tormented by the decision she made. She always orders extra copies of her daughter’s photographs in case she sees her parents again. She has a big box of letters she has written to them too. “I try to explain,” she said. “But I never get it right. I feel very guilty, ashamed. I hate that I have deprived my parents of a relationship with their granddaughter, and her with them. Still to this day it makes me wonder what sort of person I am.

“I’m on antidepressants. I rarely sleep. I don’t let anyone get too close to me. But despite all that I’m desperate not to go back. I love the life I’ve built. I live in fear of it being taken away from me.”

Joe Apps, manager of the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s UK missing persons bureau, said there was a range of reasons for adults disappearing, including relationships, financial problems, addiction and mental health problems.

There is, he said, a dearth of solid information to help police trace those who could be at risk. “We only solve five to seven of the 30 to 40 cases we handle each month,” he admitted. “We appreciate that’s a very small number but this is a mysterious world we know very little about. This new project is a sign that we are entering a new era in missing adults.”

The only specialist research centre concerned with missing people in the UK, the Centre for the Study of Missing Persons, at the University of Portsmouth, estimated that an average investigation costs from £1,325 to £2,415: roughly three times more than a violent crime or robbery, and four times more than a burglary.

But Houghton-Brown emphasises that the urge to disappear can be positive. “We need to be more open as a society [to the fact that] people need to take breathing space. Sometimes people need to take time out to deal with stuff. But they need to know how to do that safely.”

Rebecca chose to go missing, aged 22, to escape her bullying father. She stayed away for two and a half years before the death of an uncle prompted her return. “Going missing was the last resort but it gave me time to deal with my own issues. I still sometimes have the urge to go missing again. If you’ve done it once and survived, the temptation is always there.”

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal releases former Khmer Rouge leader

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age, Alzheimer's, Cambodia, Genocide, healthcare, justice, Khmer Rouge, massacre, Torture, Tribunal, War Crimes

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal releases former Khmer Rouge leader

Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal set free a former leader of the Khmer Rouge on Sunday, upholding a decision that has outraged survivors seeking an explanation of the mass killings committed more than 30 years ago.

Ieng Thirith, 80, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the UN-backed tribunal’s compound by family members. She made no comment to reporters.

The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge’s rule from 1975-79, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.

The tribunal initially announced its decision to free Ieng Thirith on Thursday, saying medical experts had determined there was no prospect for her to be tried due to a degenerative mental illness that was probably Alzheimer’s disease.

Prosecutors then delayed her release by filing an appeal demanding that conditions be set to restrict her freedom.

On Sunday, the tribunal’s supreme court said it had accepted the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this month. In the meantime, it set three provisional conditions on her movement.

The tribunal said Ieng Thirith must inform the court of her address, must turn in her passport and cannot leave the country, and must report to the court whenever it summons her.

Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge’s highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of the group’s top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

She is accused of involvement in the “planning, direction, co-ordination and ordering of widespread purges,” and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide and torture.

Three other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are on trial, including her husband, 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the regime’s former foreign minister; 85-year-old Nuon Chea, its chief ideologist and second-in-command; and 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, a former head of state.

The tribunal said earlier that Ieng Thirith’s release did not mean the charges against her were being withdrawn and was not a finding of guilt or innocence. It plans to consult annually with experts to see whether future medical advances could render her fit for trial, although that is considered unlikely given her age and frailty.

Survivors of the Khmer Rouge called Ieng Thirith’s release shocking and unjust. They said they had waited decades for justice and found it hard to feel compassion for her suffering.

“It is difficult for victims and indeed, all Cambodians, to accept the especially vigorous enforcement of Ieng Thirith’s rights taking place at the [tribunal],” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a group that researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.

In a statement on Sunday,, he noted the irony of Ieng Thirith receiving “world class health care.” As social affairs minister she was “personally and directly involved in denying Cambodians even the most basic health care during the regime’s years in power,” he said.

The tribunal began in 2006 – nearly three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge – following years of wrangling between Cambodia and the UN. The lengthy delays have been costly and raised fears that the former leaders could die before their verdicts come.

Moken nomads leave behind their ‘sea gypsy’ life for a modern existence

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alcohol, assimilation, Burma, citizenship, culture, customs, decompression sickness, dive, education, employment, fish-bombing, gambling, integration, Language, livelihood, Moken, nomads, sea cucumber, sea-gypsies, stateless, Thailand, traditions, tribe, tsunami

Moken nomads leave behind their ‘sea gypsy’ life for a modern existence

Ngui takes one last breath and disappears with a tiny splash. Tunnelling through the turquoise waves, he dives past brightly coloured fish and coral, until he reaches the sandy bottom of the seabed, 20 metres deep, where he begins scouring for tonight’s dinner.

He wears no mask, no fins, and no diving tank. He prefers sarongs and button-down shirts decorated with seashell and starfish motifs but the most startling thing about him underwater is his eyes. They are wide open.

Ngui, 30, belongs to the Moken, a nomadic, seafaring tribe of hunter-gatherers who live in the southern seas of Burma and Thailand. Little is known about their origins, but it is believed they descended from migrant Austronesians who set sail from southern China around 4,000 years ago. Spending eight months of the year at sea, the Moken roam in small flotillas of kabang – boats fashioned from a single tree and shared by a nuclear family – and return to land only to barter fish and shells for essentials such as rice and petrol, or to wait out the monsoon season in temporary shacks. It is a way of life that has existed, unchanged, for centuries – but one that may not last for much longer.

The 2004 tsunami greatly depleted the source of the Moken’s only livelihood: the ocean’s once-abundant array of seafood. International fishing boats are now wiping out the little that’s left. Those Moken who have moved ashore are often forced to take dangerous jobs for menial pay. Those who stay at sea are sometimes arrested for lacking papers or permits. Others return to land after months afloat only to find their huts destroyed and luxury tourist resorts built in their place.

“The sea has changed and life has changed,” explains Ngui’s father, Jao. “Things we used to do we can’t do any more. Places we used to go we can’t go any more. Life isn’t fun any more.”

It would be difficult to find a family that represents the changes wrought on the Moken as well as Jao’s. He was born on a boat and spent his childhood at sea. He married at 16 and nearly pursued a traditional, aquatic lifestyle – until he and his wife decided to settle on land.

“Life was hard being illiterate,” says Jao in the cramped house in Kuraburi they now share with a 13-member extended family. “I wanted my children to go to school and have options.”

Education is still a relatively new concept to the roughly 2,000 Moken who live in the waters around Burma and Thailand, most of whom are stateless. A recent push by various charities and the Thai government to issue Thai identity cards has granted some access to state-run schools and healthcare, but claiming full-blown citizenship – by proving that they, or a parent, were born in Thailand – is a complex issue for a nomadic people who hardly use numbers and mark the date according to the tide, not the Gregorian calendar.

Even getting children to school can prove trying, said Sumana Sirimangkala, headteacher at the only school on Koh Lao, an island of 50 Moken families on the Thai-Burmese border. “Moken lack supplies like clothes, food, stationery, textbooks, shoes, raincoats, lifejackets, umbrellas – all the things that are necessary for children to come to school,” she says.

“Moken can’t afford any of these things, so the school has to provide it all – otherwise they don’t want to come.”

Moken children regularly drop out to help their parents earn money, students say. Some boys as young as eight are sent to work in construction, while others help their mothers dig for shells – backbreaking labour in the hot sun.

Nearly all the men on the island are hired by Thai fishing boats to plant explosives on the seabed, or to dive for expensive and exotic rarities such as sea cucumber. Sometimes they are sent down with air run through thin plastic tubes hooked up to a spluttery, diesel-run compressor; other times they dive without any air at all. Many succumb to decompression sickness (the bends) from ascending too quickly; some don’t return at all.

“I’m afraid of being killed, it’s so risky,” admits a 30-year-old Moken who has just returned from a fish-bombing expedition. “We wire together four to five dynamite sticks, connect another explosive wire that hooks up to the boat, and then I dive down to the bottom of the sea. When I come back up, the sticks are ignited with a battery.”

Sitdit, a Moken elder whose son died from decompression sickness during a job in the Nicobar Islands, says risks such as these are increasingly part and parcel of a new way of life.

“We are running out of resources, so our skills have to be adapted to the new challenges,” he says simply. “Sometimes the big boats get caught by the Burmese military and Moken are arrested. I had four relatives arrested by the Burmese military and they all died in jail.”

Apart from a handful of researchers who had studied their language and customs – notably the French father-son anthropologist duo Pierre and Jacques Ivanoff – the Moken were a relatively unknown lot until the tsunami, when headlines described the mysterious “sea gypsies [who] saw signs in the waves”. Charities and religious groups poured in with free supplies – food, petrol, boats and building materials – at such a velocity that some communities were left bewildered by the handouts.

“We had to become Christian to qualify for a boat, so I became a Christian – I even became a church leader!” explains Sitdit, his charity-built, two-room stilt house facing the “church”, an empty wooden structure with a simple roof. “All we had to do was follow the gospel and sing songs. But then the church [group] cheated us, and now nobody goes to church any more.”

Today, a different kind of communion is going on, one where Moken women in sarongs while away the afternoon heat with card games and whisky so strong it makes the eyes burn. When the men return from their jobs at sea, they too take to drinking and gambling.

“There’s an issue with their drinking a lot of alcohol – it’s everywhere,” says Jitlada Rattanapan of Plan Thailand, a charity working to support Moken children.

At Baan Tung Wah, a Moken village of around 70 families in the mainland resort town of Khao Lak, children with snotty noses and dirty T-shirts beg for sweets while elders take shots of strong drink. Most of the parents are away doing menial day jobs – working in construction, spraying insecticides, or scavenging for recyclables along the beaches and streets – leaving the children to play among puppies and chickens in the rubbish-filled streets.

“Everyone in this village drinks – they hit their kids, too,” says a shopkeeper, Kong Kwan, 35, who spends all day selling sweets and crisps to Moken children and petrol and whisky to Moken elders. “Sometimes the police come, but they can’t be bothered to deal with it.”

The community’s 20-year-old youth leader, Big, says that life in the village can be stifling, forcing many youths to look for a way out.

“We’re restricted to living in this area only – about five acres [2 hectares] – and because of the influx of hotels and resorts around here, the sea has been polluted,” he says. “That makes it difficult to go fishing. So a lot of young people just choose easier jobs, like working in hotels or at 7-Eleven.”

Big adds that the Moken youth have pretty much “assimilated seamlessly” into Thai society, so much so that “whatever ‘bad Thais’ do, Moken do now too”, he notes. “Drugs, stealing, marijuana, glue-sniffing. We never saw this before, and it’s getting serious.”

The village is trying to counter such behaviour by offering classes in Moken language and customs to the children, many of whom are unaware of their traditions. Other classes, directed at teens, offer training as tour guides.

The community leader, Hong, who heads the classes and created the village’s Moken museum, hopes that turning Baan Tung Wah into an ecotourism destination may help get people back on track.

“Moken are supposed to travel, to be nomadic, to travel freely. So if we cannot travel freely, we are dead, culturally at least,” he says. “Moken children use mobile phones, study English and choose to be educated. We’ve abandoned our old traditions so much we risk losing them entirely.”

While many charities working for the Moken promote education and citizenship as giving new “options” to such a vulnerable group, Narumon Hinshiranan – a cultural anthropologist at Chulalongkorn University who speaks fluent Moken and has studied the group for the past decade – says this kind of “one-size-fits-all development … limits their nomadic background”.

“I don’t see education as an ‘option’, I see it as integration into Thai society – so that they are essentially cut off from their roots.”

Those who have pursued this new kind of life – such as Jao’s 23-year-old daughter, Kang, who is so far the only Moken to have graduated from university – may determine what choices the Moken make next.

“I see myself as a bridge between the Moken community and the outside world,” says Kang, who this month starts her first job, as the only Moken teacher at the school on Surin island.

She will be living with her brother Ngui, along with some 200 other Moken villagers, but they will be parallel lives in what seems like a parallel world.

“I like to be out doing things,” says Ngui, thrusting a hand out to the sea to explain why he chose not to stay in school. “I dive to collect seafood, gather it up bit by bit, and sell it to shops. It’s enough to make a living for now.”

The Moken

• The Moken are one of many sea gypsy tribes across south-east Asia: there are the Orang Laut of Indonesia; the Bajau of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines; and the Salone (Moken) of Burma

• Thailand is home to an estimated 12,000 sea gypsies, divided into three groups: the Moken, the Moklen and the Urak Lawoi

• A 2003 study by Lund University in Sweden found that the underwater vision of Moken children was twice as good as that of their European counterparts

• Food sourcing is subsistence-based: men traditionally spear fish, or use nets or traps, to find seafood, while women catch crabs and oysters by hand, or dig for shells. They also engage in basic agriculture

• The Moken are often described as sincere and peace-loving, preferring to flee trouble than engage in disagreements

• Traditionally animist, the Moken perform a large spirit-offering festival in the fifth lunar month and celebrate death by singing, dancing and drinking

• Though the Moken give themselves only one name, the Thai monarchy has created surnames for them, among them “Klatalee” (“brave person of the sea”)

• A bucket of sea cucumbers, which the Moken dive for, earns about $10 a day. A small dish of the stuff sells for $30 or more in Taiwanese restaurants

• Moken are often called “dirty islanders” by Thai people, a phrase that has encouraged many Moken youth to adopt Thai fashion and haircuts to fit in

• Surin island, home to a large Moken settlement, was turned into a national marine park by Thailand in 1981, rendering illegal traditional Moken activities such as fishing and logging (in order to make boats)

• Burma has been rumoured to be looking to permanently resettle many of its Moken and has already turned one Moken island into a military base.

Suicide Prevention Strategy: Government Pledges £1.5m Funding

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Bereavement, Children, economy, men, mental health issues, prevention, self-harm, suicide, support, women

Suicide Prevention Strategy: Government Pledges £1.5m Funding

The government has promised to pump £1.5m into research exploring how to prevent suicides among those most at risk of taking their own lives.

The pledge comes as ministers unveiled a new suicide prevention strategy that is aiming to cut the suicide rate and provide more support to bereaved families

Funding will be used to look at how suicides can be reduced among people with a history of self-harm.

Researchers will also focus on cutting suicides among children and young people and exploring how and why suicidal people use the internet.

Launching the new strategy to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day, Care Services Minister Norman Lamb said: “One death to suicide is one too many – we want to make suicide prevention everyone’s business.

“Over the last 10 years there has been real progress in reducing the suicide rate, but it is still the case that someone takes their own life every two hours in England.

“We want to reduce suicides by better supporting those most at risk and providing information for those affected by a loved one’s suicide.”

Around 4,200 people in England took their own lives in 2010 and suicide continues to be a public health issue – especially in the current period of economic uncertainty, the Department of Health said.

The suicide rate is highest amongst men aged between 35-49, while men are three times more likely than women to take their own life, according to statistics.

The new strategy, which is being backed by charity the Samaritans, is the first in more than 10 years.

Under the fresh approach, the government will work with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety to help parents ensure their children are not accessing harmful suicide-related websites.

It will also aim to reduce opportunities for suicide by ensuring prisons and mental health facilities keep people safer.

Improved support for high-risk groups – such as those with mental health problems and people who self-harm – and well as those bereaved or affected by suicide will also be offered.

Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, Professor Louis Appleby said: “Suicide does not have one cause – many factors combine to produce an individual tragedy.

“Prevention too must be broad – communities, families and front-line services all have a vital role.

“The new strategy will renew the drive to lower the suicide rate in England.”

Around 50 national organisations from the voluntary, statutory and private sectors have also agreed to work together to tackle suicide by sharing best practice and providing support to those in need.

Samaritans chief executive Catherine Johnstone said: “We are encouraged that the government has taken this step in continuing to acknowledge the importance of suicide prevention.

“We firmly believe that suicide can be prevented by making sure people get support when they need it, how they need it and where they need it.

“This means we all have to try harder to reach people who may not now be talking to anyone about the problems they face.”