Vulnerable people need defenders of their rights. It is not unusual for families to become burdened with the extra stress and work involved in caring for an older person or handicapped person so since the creation of institutions, people have been dumped with idealistic hopes on the part of their families into classically run institutions. Working families in particular have found the demands of modern upwardly mobile lifestyles require someone to deal with breakdown of idealism through incarceration in homes for the mentally handicapped/(old term mentally retarded), homes for the aged/(old term: for the elderly), transition houses for those caught in addiction or youth rejected for rebellion.

Nursing homes and hospitals have a hard job but also are frequently human rights abusers involving themselves in kickbacks and cutting corners on cleanliness and neglecting client activities chosing instead to drug into a stupor. Jan

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(NECN: Amy Sinclair) - Three Maine men living with cerebral palsy are suing the state in federal court, claiming they've been illegally confined to nursing homes.The suit was filed jointly on...)

Near Vancouver, at Woodlands School some handicapped people and their parents, are fighting a lawsuit about abuses there.

When working for SPARC of B.C. in the late 70s and early 80s, I worked on Problem Drinking in the Elderly, a paper about drinking in the downtown eastside DTES. Another project I worked on studied legislation for Longterm care in the Elderly. I wrote about rights for old people in institutions and homes. When I worked for the B.C. Association for the Mentally Handicapped, I worked for the Woodlands parents' group where I met Mildred DeHaan one of the parents struggling to sue Woodlands.

Though one of the most popular kickbacks has always been to food distributers/catering, and funeral parlors, I believe mental health clients are most plagued by kickbacks to drug companies and to researchers, most often doing clandestine research for business and the military.