Bring Chris Home – is a national campaign set up by Lynne McCarrick, the mother of Chris, a young man with severe autism and learning disabilities who has been placed into the care of Calderstones NHS Trust, miles away from his family home. He has been detained in the treatment and assessment unit for more than three years. Chris is now 22.
Lynne McCarrick and family, now want Chris to be placed nearer the family home as they are extremely concerned for his safety. A safeguarding investigation that was carried out at the NHS Trust, found that Chris had suffered ‘institutional abuse’, including being hit by staff.
Chris is also know as, ‘PADDED ROOM BOY ‘C’.
A report by Richard Howard on the CareHome.co.uk website, reports that the CQC report into Calderstones NHS Trust highlights a number of ‘abusive practices that adults with learning disabilities have been subject to.’
The investigation into safeguarding issues at the NHS Trust was set up after a whistleblower reported on institutional abuse that was suffered by a 22-year-old adult with autism, named as Chris. Accounts state that the young man was kicked, hit in the chest, spat at and having sanitiser sprayed into his eyes.’
Lynne McCarrick, told of the findings:
“I am not surprised that the CQC found failings at Calderstones NHS Trust. This is not a place that I want my son. Chris was sent to a hospital run by Calderstones NHS Trust as the local authority and the NHS said there was nowhere else for him to go.
Lynne continues to add that her son has
“been denied education and has no peers. He has no life, he simply exists and yet his service is bewilderingly expensive. My son continues to languish in what is effectively a ‘holding bay’.”
Lynne desperately wants Chris to be near his home and family,
“so we can make sure he is safe and is given the opportunity to live a life.”
A Change.org petition, Bring Chris Home – out of hospital and near his family who love him has now been set up and to date has over 9,000 supporters.
You can follow the campaign on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BringChrisHome/timeline
And on twitter https://twitter.com/SpectrumMumUK
Each Wednesday at 9pm there is a twitter storm, where followers are encouraged to tweet with the hashtag #BringChrisHome