Six months trapped in a secure mental health unit – how the system failed one autistic 15-year-old | Frances Ryan Matthew Garnett was sent to a secure unit for six weeks. He stayed there for half a year as mental health services struggled to cope.
“Matthew’s bed at home’s been empty for six months,” Isabelle Garnett says from the family house in south London as she tells me about her son. “I can’t walk by his bedroom.”
Since September 2015, 15-year-old Matthew Garnett – who has autism, ADHD and anxiety – has been held two hours’ drive away from his home in a secure mental health treatment unit in Woking, Surrey. Or as his mum puts it to me, “the equivalent of being left on an A&E trolley for six months”.
Held long-term in the unit, Matthew is regressing Continue reading... The Guardian
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