A north-east mum who fears her autistic son has been “left to rot” in a state psychiatric hospital claims his post and phone calls have been restricted after she raised his plight in the media.
Kemnay resident, Tracey Gibbon, is battling to get her son Kyle released from Carstairs and wants him to come home for “some much needed TLC”.
She has called for the 31-year-old to be released saying the treatment he has received has been “nothing short of barbaric” and revealed yesterday that his phone calls are now being withheld.
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Mrs Gibbon said: “Kyle’s calls have been restricted to once a day – whereas he used to phone anytime of the day – even if it was just for a minute to tell me that he loved me.
“Now, they don’t just let him phone more than once a day – even if he gets agitated.”
Mr Gibbon has been in the state hospital at Carstairs since 2010 with some of the country’s most serious offenders.
He had previously been treated at Royal Cornhill in Aberdeen and was due to be allowed to leave to supported accommodation.
Mrs Gibbon added: “He had been attending college. And he was looking forward to getting a flat. But all that changed after a doctor, who hadn’t seen him before, decided to do a risk assessment on him.
“Kyle got agitated, and didn’t know what was going on – the next minute they had sedated him and sent him to Carstairs.
“It came out later that the staff at Carstairs weren’t made aware he was even at college. They assessed him in his heavily-sedated state, then he was sectioned and he has been there ever since.
“I’m worried that they keep sedating him more and more – he told me he thinks his head is racing all the time.
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“I am terrified that one day I will get that phone call to tell me he has died.
“I have to keep trying to get him out – or else I will never forgive myself.”
She said she most recently visited Mr Gibbon to get him to sign an ombudsman complaint form because the one she had posted to him had been “destroyed by staff”.
The family’s solicitor, Gary McIlravey, of Dundee-based Lawson, Coull and Duncan, said: “Kyle’s place of detention is wholly inappropriate and we’re doing everything we can to address his situation.”
Aberdeenshire West MSP, Alexander Burnett, has also been supporting the family and has helped Mrs Gibbon to complete the complicated ombudsman forms.
He said he thought it was “worrying” that Mr Gibbon’s calls had been restricted, and added: “I am calling for a review of procedures at Carstairs.”
The state hospital responded: “It’s recognised use of the phone for many patients is necessary to maintain contact with families and friends.
“A consistent, standardised practice is in place for all patients and any changes would be based solely on the advice of the clinical team.”
