Social Handicaps
'Any fool can close a long-stay hospital: it takes more time to do it properly and compassionately.' So said an all-party group of MPs last year. Yet the fear is that hospitals for the mentally handicapped are rushed into closure and the residents placed in communities that do not care. Sixty thousand parents and relatives of the mentally handicapped have petitioned Parliament to stop the hospital closure programme.
Last week, Brass Tacks showed the problems confronting former hospital patients released into the outside world on the back of the progressive 'community care' philosophy of the 60s. Tonight, Sir Brian Rix , Secretary-General of the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults, and an advocate of community care, defends the policy against its critics.
Peter Taylor is in the chair. Studio director PAUL CAMPBELL Producer STEVE ANDERSON Editor COLIN CAMERON BBC Manchester