A young boy with autism who wrote heartbreaking suicide notes has been moved more than two hours away for treatment.
Jack Rogan, eight, from Liverpool, is now undergoing treatment in Sheffield. He is around 80 miles away.
Long way from home: mum Kerry with Jack
Jack is staying at the Becton Centre, Sheffield’s specialist children’s mental health unit.
‘Forget me’
Mum Kerry Linnell, 43, revealed Jack penned notes pleading “please everyone forget me”. She said he threatened to kill himself with scissors.
Linnell said the move on 27 December has caused additional distress for Jack.
She maintains he would have made a quicker recovery had specialist beds been available in Liverpool.
Call for change
Linnell, who has been staying in Sheffield hotels, has started a Facebook page, Justice for Jacko. She has also set up a petition that demands more resources for children’s mental health.
She said: “When we try and do a transition, when he’s allowed to come out for a couple of hours, we’ve got to go around a city centre that we don’t know.”
The youngster started talking about suicide after struggling to cope at a new school.
The distressed thoughts of young Jack as written by the youngster himself and (bottom right) as recorded by his mum
Threat of suicide
He pleaded with his mother to kill him with scissors and threatened to do it himself. As a result, he spent seven weeks on a non-specialist ward at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital before the move to Sheffield.
Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger has said Jack’s case is part of much wider children’s mental health crisis. Emergency admissions were at record highs. Meanwhile, prevention services were suffering from big cutbacks.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told Autism Eye: “It is completely unacceptable for children and young people to be sent away from their family and friends for treatment, which is why we’ve committed to end inappropriate placements by 2020.
“We want all children and young people with mental health conditions to receive better treatment, no matter where they live, and that’s why we are putting a record £1.4 billion into children and young people’s mental health.”
You can visit the Justice for Jacko Facebook page by clicking here. You can also read the petition by clicking here.
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Published: 13 January 2018
