From our Facebook page by Casey Burnett Joseph’s Story – Part 1 This is incredibly hard to write, but I’m desperate to get my son Joseph’s story heard. Please share. Joseph is my world. He has autism, learning disabilities, OCD and mental health difficulties. I have fought for him all his life. Until he was almost 18, Joseph lived happily at home with me. Then COVID changed everything. His world became frighteningly small. Soon afterwards I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and Joseph lost his beloved dog of 13 years. Suddenly, he was surrounded by fear, illness and loss. When I became critically ill, I was admitted to hospital as an emergency. My mum couldn’t care for Joseph alone, so he was taken away from home, terrified he would never see me again. Eventually he moved into supported living. As I recovered, he came home at weekends, but professionals insisted he needed to stay there to build independence. Instead, everything fell apart. Over the next 18 months his placement deteriorated. Joseph’s mental health declined, but no one listened. The system believed it knew best. During one crisis, Joseph was restrained by police for nearly nine hours in Scarborough A&E while in extreme distress. It was the hottest day of the year. He suffered burns, multiple injuries, kidney damage and almost ended up in intensive care. I begged for the restraint to end. No one listened. He spent six days in hospital. Sitting beside him, I couldn’t understand how anyone could treat such a vulnerable young man this way. Joseph has the mental age of a child. The terror he experienced is unimaginable. Part 2 in comments