Don’t Send Chris, 21, To Another Secure Hospital

From Change.org:

My son spent another birthday incarcerated in a mental health unit last year. This was his 21st birthday but it was memorable for all the wrong reasons as we had just found out that he had been subjected to the most appalling physical and emotional abuse by his paid hospital carers. For all of us this was another devastating blow- this was not for the first time Chris has suffered abuse. My son had been the subject of a serious human rights abuse case in the courts previously, and we had beenassured this would never happen again, that this time he would be SAFE.

Chris has a diagnosis of severe autism and severe learning difficulties and this combined, with a severe speech and language deficit, leaves him unable to communicate verbally and as such he is extremely vulnerable. Yes he has a diagnosis, but he has wonderful attributes too. He is funny, lively, handsome, never boring, and, as is natural for someone with his diagnosis, he can become upset and frustrated by many things but mostly this is now because of the severely restricted lifestyle thrust upon him.

My beautiful son has always been very active and a privateoutdoor space had been identified as a basic necessary requirement, an environment where he could use his energy productively. Yet despite the assurances of the Local Authority following a High Court Ruling in 2012 and a morerecent Mental Health Tribunal, instead of the sensory garden he was promised (in front of a Judge,) he has to wander around aimlessly in an empty bog land and the play equipment supplied by us has long been removed by the ‘clinical team’.

The Local Authority and the NHS have also failed to act on independent Social Worker’s Report they had commissioned. Two years on, Chris has adapted to this environment where he’s left to claw up clumps of mud, grass and whatever else may be lurking in the ground which he chews, simply because he is starved of the everyday stimulation the rest of society take for granted. His frustration of his predicament has become unbearable to witness. He has suffered appalling physical disfigurement through self-injury. The consequences of his outbursts due to his lack of exercise, activity and education result in him being administered high levels of medication and placed in physical restraint. This includes the ‘prone’ restraint, a dangerous method of holding people face down. We have made our concerns known but we are ignored. It’s absolutely chilling that places like this still exist, places where they, in our view, are a law unto themselves and Chris is  referred to in a perfunctory manner summed up with the phrase ‘His needs are being met’. The cost of this placement is astronomical.

It has become clear to us, his family, that his biggest challenge is that he has the misfortune to live in an area under a Local Authority and now NHS services too who have a proven track record within the court system of having failed him miserably. What is more alarming is that this is continuing. The real tragedy is that my son has never been given a chance to live a life. Chris was put here as there was nowhere else for him to go and he is now serving what can only feel like a life sentence under the Mental Health Act. The Local Authority had quite simply failed in their duty of care to organise any transition planning for him throughout his formative years. The result is a life lost.   

Here is a young man who has not a malicious bone in his body, he is not a criminal, he simply lacks capacity. Chris is one of life’s innocents.

I am his mother and I ask everyone, how can this happen in a civilised, democratic society in 2014?  I feel I am losing him mentally and physically. His brother loves him deeply, he is heart-broken and devastated. We are being ignored. The Local Authority even tried to silence our family advocate. Over the years we have been shouted down at meetings and there have been attempts to discredit our good family name. At one stage, Chris was refused access to his family for several weeks, and regardless of the unlawfulness of these actions one can only imagine the emotional trauma Chris was forced to endure by him not being able to comprehend why his family were totally missing. The NHS have not employed an independent person as suggested by the Judge at the Mental Health Trust meeting months ago.The garden they promised is not going to happen. Chris continues to languish, he recently ate a live frog in the bog land and has nowhere he can use his energy outside his locked flat.

We know there are amazing organisations that can help my son together with a bespoke housing provider. They have said they will happily work with Chris and us to provide a safe and stimulating environment- and it would cost far less than the amount currently being spent! The professionals do not want to know. They considered these offers very “unhelpful”. They just want to move him on to yet another hospital and put him behind closed doors once again. Out  of sight, out of mind.

My son deserves to live a meaningful life. Please join our campaign to give Chris a voice and a life. We implore you to sign your name on this petition that simply asks for Chris to have an independent assessment that will afford him the opportunity of a home and not another institution