Facebook’s Autism Awareness Viral Not Entirely Successful In Bristol

This worked a treat, too

Millions of earnest social networkers are now wondering how healthcare professionals at Bristol’s Winterbourne View residential hospital could possibly have engaged in the systematic abuse of vulnerable patients, as the Facebook philanthropists were under the distinct impression that the internet had somehow fixed society’s lack of autism awareness forever with a heartfelt viral cut-and-paste status post which did the rounds last year.

“Perhaps the four staff members who were arrested for teasing, taunting, slapping, and forcing the residents in their care into showers whilst fully clothed just don’t use Facebook or something,” mused one instant campaigner. “Or maybe they were actually being nice to the autistic ones, and only abused people with learning disabilities I haven’t heard of. I don’t think Facebook covered those.”

It is also becoming clear that not only the brutal staff in the hospital, but also the Care Quality Commission watchdogs who are supposed to enforce standards in residential care, appear to have been mysteriously bypassed by the magical awareness-raising power of social networking, as it emerged that a worried senior nurse had to alert the regulator several times before it belatedly began to look into the home’s bullying culture.

“As you might expect, some of the residents were less than happy about being mistreated by the very people who were paid to look after them,” said a spokesman for the CQC. “But these people are always talking complete and utter crap, though, because they’re mental.”

“What?” he added. “Don’t look at me like that. Do you want me to use the pointy stick?”