Mum pleads for change as Son with learning difficulties detained in hospital for 3 years

A Mum who's adult son has been detained in a hospital far away from home for over three years is backing a campaign to make changes to the care system.

Kate Sainsbury's son Louie has learning difficulties and requires full-time care.

After spending years living comfortably in a facility close to home his family were informed it would be closing.

That triggered a move across the border to England, as the local authority struggled to find anywhere that could properly care for Louie.

Eventually he was brought back to Scotland, but was still only offered accommodation far away from his family, and ultimately ended up detained in a hospital.

Louie has been approved for release from the hospital, but is now splitting time between his own home and the hospital as there aren't enough carers available full-time locally.

"I think Louie has begun to feel a bit depressed.

"We were looking out the window last night at the rain and he was crying, and I was crying practically.

"He's beginning to lose hope that he will ever leave hospital.

"You tell him this is going to happen and it's going to happen after Christmas, well Louie is thinking it's after Christmas, why am I not living in my own home?

"And we are held up because as in many areas there aren't enough people going to care at the moment."

Kate admits that finding enough carers to fill a team to look after Louie - 12 are required - and the management that goes along with that is nearly impossible.

She's backing the Enable Scotland #MyOwnFrontDoor campaign.

The charity says it wants to address the "human rights emergency" of thousands of people with learning difficulties being sent far away from home.

The campaign is calling for urgent action to end hospital living for people with learning disabilities; and to put immediate plans in place to ensure that all people in delayed discharge or who have been displaced ‘out of area’ are supported to return to live in the home they choose and the community they choose, close to the people they love by 2023.

Already the charity supports 6,000 people to live independently across Scotland, including some people who were previously living in hospital or other institutional settings for many years, or who have been fighting for their rights to live closer to their families.

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