I would like to share this petition with all of you in case you are not aware: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231406

This petition requires 100,000 signatures in order for the detention of autistic people in mental health hospitals be brought to Parliament. Please sign this one if you have not done so far. It is expiring this May and needs about 75,000 signatures.

To answer a question about Care and Treatment Reviews, N.A. indeed has had 3 Care and Treatment Reviews (CTRs) so far, with a 4th one coming up soon. Most recommendations of the previous ones have not been followed and overall the CTRs have not been at all helpful as nothing changed in terms of her care and treatment since each one.

It is the 2010s and the way these young people are being treated in mental health hospitals is beyond imagination. No one would ever think that drugging young people or keeping them in seclusion for two weeks would be legal but doctors have the Mental Health Act to back them up. A doctor who is now seeing N.A. has removed 2 of the daily drugs and reduced the dose of another. This doctor is the 6th doctor so far who is also trying to see if N.A. has only autism or also something else. How many doctors it takes to make a diagnosis and at what cost? At a cost of isolating a young person over a year and in fact destroying him/her? She already had the diagnosis from the previous two hospitals that she has autism and now they still detain her in a 3rd hospital for assessment and treatment. We are full of fear that in the end institutionalisation of this once charismatic young person will happen.

We truly hope over a 100 signatures would help at the next Care and Programme Approach meeting and the CTR. 

Grateful thanks to all of you.