'Seen something? Say something.' is the Scottish slogan to protect adults at risk of harm, so why were those who saw harm in care homes during lockdowns dismissed or ignored when they said something?
From my own perspective, working in the field, it was made extremely clear to me that any deviation from, or questioning of, 'the rules' which were in spirit and practice upheld every single time (daily) the then First Minister of Scotland announced how "heavy" her heart was, was not to be countenanced. I did my individual best by recording in my work notes every occasion when it was obvious to me that a person was suffering because of the restrictions. As far as I am aware none of my colleagues did the same. From what I've seen since, the swallowing of social work into a much larger corporate mentality was accelerated by the events of 2020-2022.
You did what you could Penny in the most horrendous of circumstances and I commend you for it. As you say, social workers have strayed far from their original calling to put people first and have become administrators and advocates of government policy. There are too few true social workers left so hold in there.
Thank you for a very informed and interesting article. No one in the nursing and care homes set out in 2020 to cause harm to the people in their charge, but it did happen. Following orders blindly can lead you down a path of destruction when the orders themselves are bad, it coming from the government and our health institutions in a so called "emergency" seemed to supersede any protection laws so they were toothless in safeguarding the victims. The majority of people just blindly followed the orders given to them by their government and health institutions, all of this was so insidious because it came under the guise of "health care" and "infection control" and it was wielded with no mercy onto the elderly especially in care and nursing homes. There was no compassion, no humanity instead the orders were cold, callous and inhuman which caused the most damage to vulnerable people. The engineers of this pandemic travesty knew exactly what the fallout of their actions would be.
Well written Valerie. These are the biggest human rights abuses in living memory for Scots and most of the population is oblivious to the truth of it all thanks to the media.
''Isolating frail older people and denying them access to essential medical care and treatment was obviously going to cause serious harm''
And the latest scientific research pours more scorn on the idea on a novel disease called 'COVID' was causing excess deaths as advertised.
''The proteins found to be significantly associated with loneliness and social isolation have also been implicated in inflammation and antiviral and immune responses.''
Fact is all 'public health' measures used during lockdown caused serious harm upto death without ANY credible proof of benefit. MSPs know this but voted to repeat lockdown in future if required. None of them have shown ANY concern vs Scottish inquiry evidence. Shocking!
OK, good question: "why the health and social care workforce caved to politically motivated policies with no evidence base, over our normally robust legal framework, professional standards and codes of ethics. Not to mention common sense."
The answer was, I believe, a reign of terror akin to the witch-hunts of the past. The best way to shut people up is to frighten them near to death.
Orwell understood this very well. Big Brother took over, and people were terrified of deviance or dissent.
I agree fear played a large part but in the early days of 2020, most social workers were bizarrely working at home so possibly not subjected to the same level of fear as front line workers that would cause them to deviate from basic good practice that is etched on their brains. Could the ASP committees actively blocked referrals? I wrote the piece primarily for the chairs of the ASP committees and hope, now that people are in a better frame of mind, that it might prompt some reflection on such blatant breaches of policy and law.
An excessive reliance on 'Experts' also played a big part in a perceived 'Crisis' - even within the medical profession I encountered many doctors and even consultants who had no real training in immunology or vaccines - some tried to bluff it, others admitted that it wasn't their job to question the 'wisdom of experts'. Medical discipline is like the 'Omerta' doctrine - you don't criticise other doctors unless you want to be blackballed or fired. And PAMs (and patients) are even less likely to apply critical thinking.
I guess its a bit like being a passenger on a plane or boat - or a civil emergency such as a terrorist attack or a fire - most people 'follow orders' instinctively.
From my own perspective, working in the field, it was made extremely clear to me that any deviation from, or questioning of, 'the rules' which were in spirit and practice upheld every single time (daily) the then First Minister of Scotland announced how "heavy" her heart was, was not to be countenanced. I did my individual best by recording in my work notes every occasion when it was obvious to me that a person was suffering because of the restrictions. As far as I am aware none of my colleagues did the same. From what I've seen since, the swallowing of social work into a much larger corporate mentality was accelerated by the events of 2020-2022.
You did what you could Penny in the most horrendous of circumstances and I commend you for it. As you say, social workers have strayed far from their original calling to put people first and have become administrators and advocates of government policy. There are too few true social workers left so hold in there.
Thank you for a very informed and interesting article. No one in the nursing and care homes set out in 2020 to cause harm to the people in their charge, but it did happen. Following orders blindly can lead you down a path of destruction when the orders themselves are bad, it coming from the government and our health institutions in a so called "emergency" seemed to supersede any protection laws so they were toothless in safeguarding the victims. The majority of people just blindly followed the orders given to them by their government and health institutions, all of this was so insidious because it came under the guise of "health care" and "infection control" and it was wielded with no mercy onto the elderly especially in care and nursing homes. There was no compassion, no humanity instead the orders were cold, callous and inhuman which caused the most damage to vulnerable people. The engineers of this pandemic travesty knew exactly what the fallout of their actions would be.
Well written Valerie. These are the biggest human rights abuses in living memory for Scots and most of the population is oblivious to the truth of it all thanks to the media.
''Isolating frail older people and denying them access to essential medical care and treatment was obviously going to cause serious harm''
This was all KNOWN https://ibb.co/R4PCxJ1x
And the latest scientific research pours more scorn on the idea on a novel disease called 'COVID' was causing excess deaths as advertised.
''The proteins found to be significantly associated with loneliness and social isolation have also been implicated in inflammation and antiviral and immune responses.''
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/loneliness-and-social-isolation-leave-mark-blood-2025a10000cf?ecd=mkm_ret_250213_mscpmrk-GB_Perso_etid7227075&uac=407830PV&impID=7227075
Fact is all 'public health' measures used during lockdown caused serious harm upto death without ANY credible proof of benefit. MSPs know this but voted to repeat lockdown in future if required. None of them have shown ANY concern vs Scottish inquiry evidence. Shocking!
OK, good question: "why the health and social care workforce caved to politically motivated policies with no evidence base, over our normally robust legal framework, professional standards and codes of ethics. Not to mention common sense."
The answer was, I believe, a reign of terror akin to the witch-hunts of the past. The best way to shut people up is to frighten them near to death.
Orwell understood this very well. Big Brother took over, and people were terrified of deviance or dissent.
I agree fear played a large part but in the early days of 2020, most social workers were bizarrely working at home so possibly not subjected to the same level of fear as front line workers that would cause them to deviate from basic good practice that is etched on their brains. Could the ASP committees actively blocked referrals? I wrote the piece primarily for the chairs of the ASP committees and hope, now that people are in a better frame of mind, that it might prompt some reflection on such blatant breaches of policy and law.
An excessive reliance on 'Experts' also played a big part in a perceived 'Crisis' - even within the medical profession I encountered many doctors and even consultants who had no real training in immunology or vaccines - some tried to bluff it, others admitted that it wasn't their job to question the 'wisdom of experts'. Medical discipline is like the 'Omerta' doctrine - you don't criticise other doctors unless you want to be blackballed or fired. And PAMs (and patients) are even less likely to apply critical thinking.
I guess its a bit like being a passenger on a plane or boat - or a civil emergency such as a terrorist attack or a fire - most people 'follow orders' instinctively.
Thank you for speaking out.