Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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‘Puddles like Pillows’ in Zouche Magazine

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Another little dose of weird: After a while, with the streets and parks getting less cluttered, it started to look as if some cosmic recycler had dropped by to tidy us up. So then people stopped using the bins and just hung about with their cameras waiting for their banana skin or whatever to take off. Read More: http://zouchmagazine.com/puddles-like-pillows/#ixzz2dFpRSbtW Zouche has been away for a while but now it’s back with its lovely graphics and varied content and I’m delighted to be back too [see A Tale of Two Sixties 2011]. Continue reading ‘Puddles like Pillows’ in Zouche Magazine

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Edinburgh book festival: the storify tweet challenge

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This has been a hoot – a new prompt every day and a right old clamour to get something out. Getting on the selected list – and who knows how these were picked but if you’ve been to a festival you’ll be thinking drink must surely have been involved – was a bonus, especially for those of us stretching our necks to for a sniff at that rarefied air! Where mine made it to the list, I shamelessly took screen shots (well wouldn’t you, really?) so here they are:       Related articles Edinburgh Book fest marks 30th with … Continue reading Edinburgh book festival: the storify tweet challenge

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assisted suicide, capacity to consent, deathLeave a comment

Assisted suicide

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

A contentious issue and back in the news today. While suicide is a deeply unpalatable idea, for some, it feels like a real and only solution and I recall a discussion we had a while ago about how to identify people with learning disabilities whose pain and distress were so extreme but whose lives were so controlled that suicide was not an option. It is hard to be clear, but if we are to make any headway with matters of choice, consent, and ownership of our own bodies, we must step up to the plate and discuss it openly. This … Continue reading Assisted suicide

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law, learning disabilities, vulnerable adultsLeave a comment

Can perpetrators be victims too?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Today there is a major outcry about what appears at face value to be extremely lenient sentencing of a paedophile and some extraordinary comments made by the prosecution about the child victim’s behaviour. The prosecutor Robert Colover was also criticised after he reportedly told the hearing: “The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced.” I listened to the phone-in on BBC radio 5Live where people with a great deal of experience of sexual abuse – some of them professionals in the field, others victims – were almost unanimous in their condemnation, with a few arguing somewhat … Continue reading Can perpetrators be victims too?

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Full of Crow, humour2 Comments

‘Oars for Legs’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

‘Oars for Legs’: It’s very embarrassing to have a spasm in the middle of a – how shall we say – romantic interlude. Even more so when you have succeeded in trapping your paramour by the genitals and pinned him up against the wall. Cerebral palsy can be a bugger sometimes. Out on Full of Crow: disability positive with a giggle and a smidgen of nearly-there science. Continue reading ‘Oars for Legs’

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Left brain, right brain – who’s really making it up?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

  I am not a neuropsychologist so I’ve let the left brain-logic/right brain-creative issue ride. After all, that sort of simplification is not going to kill anyone and it might just help sometimes. But with the increase in focus – via everything from apps and exercises to meditation – on hauling your right brain out from under its mossy rock to perform in public, I’m pleased to see a nice clear and competent article that puts the matter straight.   Christian Jarrett is editor of The Psychologist – the professional magazine outlet for the British Psychological Society – and he busts the … Continue reading Left brain, right brain – who’s really making it up?

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NHS, patientLeave a comment

When deaths ought not to be expected: the interdependency of couples & the inadequacies of health services

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is an account of how, through multiple failures, misses, barren communications, and thoughtless expedience, one family’s parents seem to have died sooner than they should. The NHS was already struggling due to huge changes instituted by a government that I clearly remember promising us it would not make. The NHS, they said, has been through enough change and needs to settle. I don’t like to think what they really meant by change if this is consolidation. Then, and blame cannot be attributed to these immediate changes but perhaps to the impact of the constant tide of them, came the scandals … Continue reading When deaths ought not to be expected: the interdependency of couples & the inadequacies of health services

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Fiction where main character has Down Syndrome

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I wonder if the person who arrived here by entering this search term found what they were looking for. Maybe it was ‘If It Ain’t Broke …‘: Robert is a man with Down’s who has to make a choice when he’s offered a chance to go back in time and change his DNA, and he’s here on Ether for download to iPhone or Android devices, or here for on-screen reading. I’ve known a lot of Roberts over the years and I think many of them would recognise the dialogue. For quite a few, the framework for any conversation was a … Continue reading Fiction where main character has Down Syndrome

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