Maltreatment of Vulnerable Populations

The following is my reply regarding a post about abuses of developmentally disabled clients at a place called Winterbourne View in Bristol, UK.

Both as a human being and as someone who lives with mental illness, I find this appalling. It was back in the early 80's when I was hospitalized after becoming so overwhelmed that I swallowed several diet pills and proceeded to make what were actually superficial cuts on my wrists. I was 16 years old. I was treated deplorably, including being told by one "angel of mercy" that I was a freak, I would always be a freak, and people like me could never be normal. My retort was "better to be a freak than a bitch like you." I vowed never to end up in a place like that again. It has been very hard for me to get help. The private sector help is too expensive and the publicly provided mental health counseling is pretty well worthless.