An investigation was launched today after a care home admitted inviting in prostitutes to offer sexual services to disabled residents.
The street workers regularly meet with vulnerable guests for sex sessions – known in the home as a ”special visit”.
Staff have been ordering the prostitutes by phone who then visit disabled residents at Chaseley, a nursing home caring for 55 people in Eastbourne, Sussex.
Sex workers meet residents in a special room and a red sock is put on the door handle so staff know not to disturb them.
Bosses say many physically and mentally disabled people have no other sexual outlet – and become so frustrated they often resort to groping staff.
Care workers say the ”sex surrogates” are ”therapeutic” and experts claim they are a ”basic human right”.
But East Sussex County Council has launched an urgent investigation into possible ”exploitation and abuse” of vulnerable people.
Sue Wyatt, Chaseley’s manager, has confirmed prostitutes are welcomed at the home but say staff no longer make the calls ordering them directly.
She said a ”third party consultant” was now used to contact the sex workers – and says the disabled guests ”have needs” which the hookers help meet.
Mrs Wyatt said: ”People have needs, so sometimes we might need to be set up a room in a certain way. We are there to help.
”We use a private consultant who arranges everything. They are an independent person who works in the home. She puts people in touch with people.
”We respect our residents as individuals so that’s why we help this to happen.”
The practice at the home was revealed by its former manager Helena Barrow.
She said: ”The fact is, sex workers are allowed by law to sexually enable people but care workers are not.
”So, if someone asked, we would often call in a professional, someone trained to do that. It’s known as the resident’s ‘special visit’.
”If you have a resident who is groping staff, one way of resolving that problem is to get a sex worker in who is trained to deal with that situation.
”But most of the time, these are people who feel frustrated by a primeval need they cannot fulfil.
”So we would help them with the phone, dial the number, or use the computer to contact someone who could help.
”If we refused, we would not be delivering a holistic level of care.”
Mrs Barrow, who now manages another care home in St Leonards, Sussex, insisted residents always paid for the call girls themselves.
She said staff at her former workplace would often telephone sex workers and invite them to the home.
Staff would dial the number and hold the phone to the disabled person’s ear so they could make the call themselves.
She said the calls were welcomed into the building and escorted by a member of staff to a room where a resident was waiting.
Staff would then put a ”special red sock” on the door handle to make sure the couple were not disturbed before checking on them every 15 minutes.
On one occasion, local strippers were invited into the home to perform a ”special show” for residents.
Chaseley is an ex-military nursing home which now houses a mix of residents whose places are funded by private arrangements or by social services.
A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said the local authority had been unaware of Chaseley’s policy of inviting prostitutes on site and ”did not welcome” the idea.
He said: ”We will examine our concerns through the Pan-Sussex Multi-Agency Policy and Procedures for Safeguarding Adults at Risk.
”This has the potential to place vulnerable East Sussex residents at risk of exploitation and abuse.”
But other senior health workers welcomed Chaseley’s decision to actively help its residents have sex.
Denise Banks is director of social care provision at Chailey Heritage Foundation which has been working with the Sexual Health and Disability Allliance, a national group that campaigns for disabled people to be allowed access to sex workers.
She revealed the foundation had contacted Chaseley to help develop a policy where prostitutes could be found for residents if needed.
Mrs Banks said: ”The work they [Chaseley] are doing is certainly pleasing.
”If someone asked us to contact a sex worker for them, we would have to be open to that. If we resisted we would be going against the Human Rights Act.
”We would try to facilitate that somewhere else to protect that individual’s privacy and dignity. It’s a much nicer way to do it. But we need to develop a proper policy.
”We do have to be very careful because when you are working with very vulnerable people you have to make sure they are not being pushed in a certain direction.
”It’s really down to an individual approach. We want to allow people to express their sexuality. It’s completely within the law but of course there has to be boundaries.”
Dr Tuppy Owens, convenor of the Sexual Health and Disability Allliance, said: ”Many disabled people are living in perpetual frustration.
”If someone wants to access a sex worker and they can’t make the phone call then they should be allowed to do that. There’s nothing illegal about it.
”What’s illegal is for disabled people to be denied their human rights.”
But other experts raised health and safety fears around allowing vulnerable people access to sex workers without proper checks.
Nick Tapp, chief executive of East Sussex Disability Association, said he thought it posed ”certain problems”.
He said: ”Allowing them release in this way would appear to be a good thing.
”However, there’s always an issue of risk which is for local authorities and health authorities to look into.
”How do you know the sex workers are not carrying infections? There are certainly safety issues there.”
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care watchdog, refused to reveal whether it was aware of prostitutes being invited into care homes.
A CQC spokeswoman said: ”Where an individual care need is identified, we expect care plans to reflect that, and for all the appropriate safeguards to be in place to ensure that the individual concerned and others potentially affected are protected against the risk of abuse.”
The practice of ”sex surrogacy”’ is currently in the spotlight following the release of a new Hollywood film, The Sessions.
It confronts the sexual needs of the disabled and the controversial role sometimes played by surrogates in order to fulfil them.
“Prostitutes are a basic human right!” This is absolutely disgusting. NO ONE has the right to someone else’s body.
orry about my spelling… I actually think that the person who wrote the comment about rights said it poorly. I think what they were saying is that having sexual urges is a natural right, and having a way to express that urge is fine.
I love this idea, all care homes should consider doing this. A safe place, minimizing the possible of robbery or abuse…while giving people a place for sex if they cannot arrange it for themselves is a great thing. I am 67 and single. It would be a nice thought that my every once in a while erections would not be a problem gives, me a kind of peace.
How about the peace of knowing your erection didn’t get satisfied at the cost of a young girl being sold into slavery?
I am not saying i condone it but if she wants to do that kind of work.its less of a threat to her if she did it this way other than meeting a john in a dark street behind a dumpster.
I am disabled and I get very sex frustrated I think sex worker should do it at a lower price disabled people need sex and they need there sex frustrated met.i would love too have full sex relshionship but its very difficult for a disabled person too have sex with there Disabilty so disabled people have too turn too paying for sex
Elle, you’re forgetting that the prostitutes have CHOSEN to do the work that they do. Haven’t you ever heard of free will?
if u have no other choice but to sell ur body then it was never a choice
Not all prostitutes are able to choose… That is a very very shallow way of looking at this discussion
Ron, I think its fairly well established that many of these women were groomed (brainwashed) to be prostituted from very young ages. Many are kept in line by pimps through beatings, humiliations, withholding of food, water, shelter, or through threats to them or their loved ones. If that was even only their *introduction* (not their on-going reality, as it is for so many) to being prostituted, aren’t you engaging in cementing their abuse?
Thank you! So well said.
Well done to the staff. The people there have needs beyond basic care and the staff provided it. The people who object to this disgust me. You do not see people but at best children, and at worst… I will leave you to fill in the elipsis with your own ignorance.
Desires are not needs. By your definition, desires = needs therefore must be fufilled. Congratulations, you just made every man a rapist. Amazing that you call us ignorant. Mr. Pot, Mr. Kettle prefers not to be called Black!
Well done to the staff. The people there have needs beyond basic care and the staff provided it. The people who object to this disgust me. You do not see people but at best children, and at worst… I will leave you to fill in the ellipsis with your own ignorance.
If the staff provided ‘it’ there’d be no need to call the pimp.
So what about the female patients? Have they brought in male prostitutes for them as well? Or do only men have the “right” to a hooker?
Exactly what I was wondering…
It doesn’t mention the sex of the residents or the sex workers. It could be either, so I would save your ‘moral’ outrage. As a person who works in the field of Social Care, I can assure you parents are also seeking the same thing for their children as mentioned above. Both male and female. And as I have discovered recently, Gays and Lesbian people with disability’s are being enabled by their parents.
What are you going on about? Gender hasn’t been specified in the article. I’m sure if a woman ask for a prostitute (who could be a man!) they would also be given this ‘human right’.
It’s not the point whether it’s a male or female, straight or gay using the ‘service’, although it’s usually men we’re talking about because relatively few women use prostitutes. The point is that it’s unethical to sexually coerce and exploit other people, regardless of who you are or what problems you have.
If sex is a ‘human right’ does that mean that if I can’t get it I can petition the government to provide it to me because it’s my human right? What a ridiculous notion. Sex is a want, a desire, not a right or a need. No-one ever died from not having sex. But there are countless women who have had their sexuality and their lives harmed by prostitution. Apparently their ‘right’ to a healthy, fulfilling sexuality and a decent life doesn’t count.
The actual needs of women, like to NOT be routinely beaten, raped or killed at work, are seldom considered in any equation. It’s completely foreign for society and most men to do so. They hide behind the “freedom of choice” banner. “It’s her choice, you prudes!” Blah, blah, blah.
I’m a sex worker and many of my clients are men and women with disabilities. Often they seek physical closeness and sexual pleasure in the face of many obstacles caused by prejudice, judgement and interference by those who seek to prevent them from experiencing intimacy. It’s great to see a care home acknowledging that adults with disabilities are entitled to the same choices as others and treats their residents with respect. See sites like http://www.tlc-trust.org.uk for more information.
WHat about the human rights of the women being exploited in prostitution, by “hiring” them u are supporting an industry that destroys women lives through heavy explotative tactics that start in their childhood, u are supporting the rape of young women and girl children in the prostitution industry. Prostitution is NEVER consentual. U are saying its ok for those old sick discousting men to freely abuse a young women for money or to “grop staff”.U know staff also has rights, right?. If one of those old sick losers were to grop me I would just hit him and insult him and if he doesnt like that, guess what? he CANNOT grop me again, those sick old rappist men need a LESSON not anyone to sexualy enable them. They need to learn to take responsability for their own feelings and needs instead of blaming and abusing women and feeling entitleD to act out that way. U PPL ARE WRONG,U HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS ARE ABOUT. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE ABOUT EVERY HUMAN HAVING THE RIGHT TO DO WHAT THEY TRULY WANT WITHOUT BEING COERCED BY FORCE, KIDNAPPING OR MONEY TO AGREE TO SOMETHING THEY DONT REALLY WANT 2 DO. WHAT ABOUT THE RIGHTS OF THE WOMEN? U ARE SUPPORTING KIDNAPPING AND EXPLOTAITION OF GIRLS AND WOMEN AND U ARE SAYING RAPE IS OK.
I disagree that anyone has a ‘right’ to sexually exploit another person simply because they have ‘desires’. If you can recognise the vulnerability of these patients, then you should also be able to recognise the vulnerability of socially and economically disadvantaged women who commonly suffer long term health and psychological consequences as a result of prostitution, ‘choice’ or not. The idea that the crime of sexual assault can be resolved by prostitution is also beyond the pale and suggests that it’s OK for some women to endure abuse and violence as long as they get a few dollars afterwards. Women have been attacked in similar programs, sometimes by men who don’t even have the ability to consent themselves and don’t fully comprehend what is happening. Nobody has a ‘right’ to sex, especially when it comes at the expense of the health and safety of other people.
It is better to legalize and TAX PROSTITUTION to cope with the World Wide Crisis. Prostitution among adult and consentient people is a right, because it is a sex way choice.
WRONG. It is better to seize property of Pimps and Johns and let it be claimed by the prostituted. You don’t solve a world wide crisis by legalizing prostitution. Better to criminalize the purchase of sex and hold harmless the prostituted.
Doesn’t this sort of suggest that groping staff is rewarded with sex with a prostitute? Might it not, in fact, make the problem worse? Aside from the ethical implications of paying for sex with a vulnerable woman.
Everybody has the opportunity to choose. The prostitutes used in the care home are from agencies, so they are drug-free. They CHOOSE to be escorts because its better and easier money than getting a real job, or learning a skill. Even the most drug-addled street whores has the choice of whether to get clean and stop taking drugs.
If anybody’s being exploited here it’s the disabled residents.The sex workers take advantage of the mens’ needs in order to profit for themselves.
So please, to all the pathetic bleeding heart liberals, do not feel sorry for any of the escorts. They are doing it through their own choice.
Ron says: ” The prostitutes used …”
What Ron is saying is that there exists a sub-human class of things called “prostitutes”.
Ron then goes on to mansplain about how it is the prostitutes that are using the men. What a crock!
“Staff have been ordering the prostitutes by phone who then visit disabled residents at Chaseley, a nursing home caring for 55 people in Eastbourne, Sussex.” Wow, ordering sex just like pizza. So, what do you want on your sex tonight, sir? Can we super-size those breasts for you, sir?
It is disgusting how this “care” facility would recognize that their staff was being victimized and in response they would contract with a pimp to victimize someone else. Groping is against the law and bringing those who did it up on charges would be more of a service to all involved. Charges would send the right message, set clear boundaries, and protect the employees. Instead, staff chose to reward the bad behavior (thus insuring it gets repeated) by giving money to pimps and supporting the commodification of women, sex, and in particular, prostituted women. By encouraging the behavior in this way, they may be MORE liable to civil action. I hope this “care” facility gets sued out of existence. It is already morally bankrupt.
Exactly right, Ed! As a nurse, I disagree with this “service” completely!
Ed, you are VERY out of touch with the prostitution industry. It is only a tiny number of women that exist in forced prostitution. Compared with the entire sex industry it is fewer than 0.1%.
If you were to actually go out and speak with girls on the street or ‘professional’ escorts, you would see that most of them are not drug addicts, nor do they have pimps, but that they are doing the job because it is good money for something that requires no skill.
Ron, I am in touch with exited women. I also read studies enough to know that your numbers are wrong. Besides that, ANYONE in slavery is too many. You probably think they aren’t coached as to how to act, what to say, etc… to make a john think she likes it. For anyone who depends on a client base to survive, you think they are gonna tell about how awful it was to be with fat smelly old men? Or how their pimp forces them to act happy? I suppose you conduct in-depth interviews with all the so-called prostitutes you hire?
Yeah, speak with *girls* on the streets. You are so blind you don’t even see that *girls* having to be on the street selling their body is wrong. I spoken with enough girls/women to know that slavery is a big issue. THe difference is the ones I spoke to were in a safe place where they could speak without fear of a pimp. They saw me as part of the solution and not as the money that was gonna keep them from getting a beating.
Congratulations, though on spouting every bit of the myth of prostitution though. Your lore-speak is very good.
“The ILO [International Labour Organization] report admits that most women ‘choose’ prostitution for economic reasons. Surely no one can argue that this is free choice any more than the cattle in the squeeze chute choose to go to their death.” July 1999 – Diane Post, JD
“If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?” Prostitution and Civil Rights by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 1993, Volume 1: 13-31.
“The consent of some, condemns all women as a group, to continue to be defined as possible providers of sex or sexual merchandise.” Apr.-June 1999 – Cecilia Hoffman
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1315501/Prostitution-How-did-oldest-profession-career-choice-middle-class-girls.html This article explains my thoughts quite well, even if it is the Daily Mail….
This practice is very dangerous. You’re feeding into the “people have sexual urges and can’t control themselves” argument. I hope this “care” facility gets shut down. I don’t buy the argument that prostitutes “choose” to be prostitutes.
And who is going to care for the ‘sex workers’ who are assaulted, raped, injured, contract illnesses and develop mental health problems as a result of prostitution? What about their human rights to be free from violence, to bodily autonomy, to economic security, to a decent living and a decent wage without having to put their bodies, mental health and lives on the line?
So if sex is a ‘human right’ and you can’t get it for whatever reason, does that mean you have the right to coerce or force it out of someone else? And where does that leave the rights of those people (usually women)? I agree this is a very dangerous and warped ideology that is being pushed here.
Prostitution is a job. All jobs are “exploitation” in the sense that people like Ed here are using. We’re all “coerced” into getting a job by “economic needs.” No one wants to waste their day stuck doing work they don’t like…but the reality is that they have to, and that we will not have a functioning society if most of us aren’t doing some sort of work.
A lot of other absurdities are being thrown around too like this “reinforcing the commodification of sex.” Commodification? That implies some sort of ongoing process when in fact sex is inherently a commodity. It is something that can be traded for and exchanged, it’s a commodity. In fact, it would be impossible to make it not a commodity.
Apalling. No-one has the right to use another person. 68% of women in prostitution end up with ptsd. This is basically saying that disabled men have the right to disable women on purpose for their own selfish gratification and the staff enable this to happen to someone else because they don’t want to be groped.