FUAO:- DJ Besford and HMCS..... This BBC news-article relevant to my case
was sent to me kindly by Miss Hazel Pottage, Trustee, Hull and East Riding
Mental Heallth Action Group. I was aware of this story and I think I have
sent a copy to DJ Besford and HMCS for my court records.
Autism misdiagnosis 'ruined a life'
Link:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/787526.stm
Sean Honeysett has been in and out of institutions
Sean Honeysett is paying the price for nearly two decades of being wrongly
diagnosed as mentally ill.
His entire adult life has been blighted by frequent spells in and out of
psychiatric units and prison.
He has been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs and anti-depressants, and has
made several suicide attempts.
However, doctors have now discovered that Sean is not mentally ill, but
instead suffers from a poorly understood form of autism known as Asperger's
syndrome.
He has been treated by the psychiatric world since he was 14, but he has not
got a psychiatric problem
Sally Honeysett
The number of people identified as having Asperger's has soared in recent
years as GPs and psychiatrists get better at spotting the condition in
childhood.
Some 300,000 people in the UK have now been identified as sufferers.
But it is feared that many people, like Sean, have slipped through the net,
and are not receiving the psychological support they so badly need.
High hopes
Sean was a bright child
Sean was a bright and friendly child, who learned to read before he went to
school. His parents had high hopes for his future.
However, 30 years later he now finds it difficult to communicate - even with
his parents.
In fact, Sean demonstrated classic signs of Asperger's from an early age. He
was often naughty and his inability to relate to other children led one
educational psychologist to label him as "emotionally disturbed".
Things came to a head at the age of 15. Instead of going back to school in
September to study for "O" levels, he shut himself in his bedroom, and said
he wanted to die.
Sean never went to school again. He was referred to a psychiatrist who
wrongly diagnosed him as being mentally ill.
Sean's problems went from bad to worse, he became depressed and aggressive.
The variety of anti-psychotic drugs he was on did nothing to improve his
condition.
At 24 he was sentenced to six months for assaulting a police officer while
drunk.
He was released on appeal after 10 days in Brixton prison.
BBC programme
Finally, in 1995 Sean's mother Sally saw a BBC television programme on
Apserger's.
She read up on Asperger's, and became increasingly convinced her son was
suffering from the condition. The family pushed for a psychological
assessment from an expert in autism.
Sally said: "The psychologist said to us, 'He has Asperger's, why has this
never been picked up?'
"She was absolutely horrified."
Sean even has trouble communicating with his family
Mrs Honeysett's first reaction was one of relief: "I thought my son's not a
nutter. He has been treated by the psychiatric world since he was 14, but he
has not got a psychiatric problem."
However, four years after his diagnosis Sean is still heavily dependant on
psychiatric services.
At present, he is being cared for at a unit in Hillingdon, west London.
His psychiatrist, who has treated him since December, trained in the
Netherlands where Asperger's syndrome has greater recognition as a possible
reason for patients' apparent psychiatric problems.
He believes Sean's condition should have been picked up in childhood.
"He is of normal intelligence, but he feels very, very guilty because of a
lot of nasty things that have happened to him.
"If his condition had been detected a lot earlier then he would not be that
ill or that dependent on services as he is now."
Sean is now gradually being weaned off the cocktail of psychiatric drugs he
had been taking.
Asperger's syndrome was identified by Hans Asperger - an Austrian
psychiatrist in 1944.
But it wasn't until 1981 - when Sean was 16 - that his paper, written in
German, came to the attention of a British psychiatrist.
Autistic children often have little desire to interact. Children with
Asperger's syndrome do want to mix, but do not have the social skills to do
so effectively.
A recent study of patients in three high security special hospitals -
Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth - found that up to 5.3% of the inmates had
an autism-like disorder.
That is more than three times higher than the incidence in the general
population.
The other great unknown is how many people in prison may have undiagnosed
Asperger's syndrome.
The National Autism Society runs an information line on 0870 600 85 85.
I also know of similiar cases, especilly Pier's Bolduc case. See articles
below:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/yy_20041028.shtml
http://212.58.226.40/1/low/health/809681.stm
http://www.awares.org/pkgs/news/news.asp?showItemID=315&board=&bbcode=&profileCode=§ion=
Piers Bolduc case:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/02/nasp102.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/08/nasper08.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/08/ixhome.html
http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/profilenews.cfm?
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/MPWebsites/Angela+Browning/47694a2e-b451-466e-ae25-56bf56b3f726.htm
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