Rotherham mum fighting to get support for her son who has Tourettes
Laura Jones says she's been told that there's no support in Rotherham for her 8-year-old son who has Tourettes syndrome.
A Rotherham mum's described being told that there's no support for her son who has Tourettes syndrome as "heartbreaking".
Laura Jones' little boy Jenson, who's 8, has the condition which means he makes involuntary noises and movements known as tics.
She says they've been told that there's nowhere they can get help to treat or assess him so he can go back to school.
She said:
"I want to fight for him because I want to get him support. To hear that actually nobody can help your child is beyond me.
"Tourettes is out there. It's a real thing. Just because we might be the only family in Rotherham with a child who has it but to find out no-one can help him is beyond me.
"How they can say no I'll never understand. It's going to cost, if we did go private, potentially £3-5000 and we just don't have that money."
Laura's worried that if his Tourettes is left untreated his condition will get worse.
She wants him to have regular one-to-one support so he can learn to control his tics and bring down his anxiety.
She added:
"In reality what Rotherham's doing, in my opinion, is neglect. You can't leave a child to suffer.
"Leaving Tourettes unassisted and not helped can make anxieties worse so in the long run he will deteriorate and we can see that already.
"There's an eight year old boy who's out of school, potentially deteriorating mental health wise. Just because they're not living with it day in day out it doesn't meant that other families aren't. We are doing that and it's absolutely heartbreaking."
Laura's local MP Sarah Champion's now supporting her to see if they can get some support in place.
In response Rotherham CCG, which commissions local NHS services, has told us:
“The health of every patient in Rotherham is of the upmost importance to us and where individuals have complex needs we are committed to making sure they get access to the most appropriate care, treatment and support available.
“We work closely with individuals and their families to make sure they have access to the expert specialist services and care that they need, which may sometimes mean travelling outside of Rotherham."