The situation here in France for autistic children and their family, is catastrophic.

Mathieu, A 8 year old child is withdrawn from his mother and internee in a psychiatric hospital in Paris.

The only fault of Mathieu is to have been born autistic, the fault of his mom, to have given him birth. Their greater misfortune, for both of them, is living in France...

Here joined below a letter from the mother, telling her story. A parents-autism association ("Lea pour Sami") is engage to help the mother, in all of her demarches.

We need you to help us getting pressure on the government to change this poor family situation.We are already having French parents  replaying to the minister; we think that some international pressure will help.

Please write to our minister to tell him (in a few sentences), what are you thinking about this situation:

xavier.bertrand @ sante.gouv.fr (without spaces)

Please put in Copy Karina Alt from « Lea pour Sami » association:

alt.karina @ wanadoo.fr (without spaces)

Here is the mother story :

My son Mathieu is autistic. He has poor language. These last years,
He was by the care of a hospital for special needs children...

My relations with the doctor of this structure were degraded year by year. I was in disagreement with him because in front of the behaviour of agitation and self-injury of my child, the only solutions suggested were drugs and family separation.

In spite of my hesitation, a treatment was begun then another. However his behaviour Remains unchanged. He even regressed.

  Expressing my refusal for a placement (in another family), then later to interne him in a psychiatric institute, I thus made act of maltreatment to my child according to the Doctor.

Not managing to obtain their goal, the doctor thus preferred to establish a procedure with the Public-prosecutor. For this purpose, he did not hesitate to write a defamatory report, pretending I was the guilty. Those are the main points:

* The parents do not make alliance with the medical team; they refuse the Separation needed for therapeutic goal.
* The agitation and the self-injury of Mathieu make him dangerous
* After 3 months at the salpetriere hospital, the mother refuses to re hospitalize her Son with an aim of awaiting a place in the institute
* The mother is sad and thus cries and depressive even suicidal and dangerous For her child
* The mother can make profit from a hospitalization in psychiatry to look after her probable depression

Naively, in same time, I allow myself to write to the Public prosecutor thinking that it is legitimate to refuse a proposal for an orientation for Mathieu. I estimate that my son has the right to receive care while remaining in his family. The only response to this mail was our convocation to the judge of the children who from the beginning had made the decision to place my child at the salpetriere hospital.

Nobody wonders about the base of this judgment. Out of the medical misleading, the legal machine is engaged. The medical team which takes over maintain the heart of the debate: the hospitalisation for Mathieu

At the time of the first hospitalisation (summer 05), his treatment by Risperdal was multiplied by 8. Anxiolytic was added and he had taken 5 kilos.

Unfortunately, he continued to injure him self. In November 2005, justice orders me to accompany him back in the Salpetriere hospital. We must accept the "life" at the hospital:

* No permission of exit first weeks (risk of destabilizing my child)
* Visits during 1 hour a week and only with appointment. Only the Parents are authorized to visit him.
* During the "calm time" of the beginning of afternoon, Mathieu locked up in his room

Where regularly it plays with his excrements

* Diurnal cleanliness is not acquired any more
* Sometimes, I find him wrapped in a cloth to prevent that he hit him self
* The words he was able to say, he does not want to say them any more.

Now, I guess on his ravaged face the intensity of his crises of self-
injury.

Moreover, the doctor of the service clamed that he makes progress.
However, he affirms that the hospital is not adapted for the care of Mathieu.
On the other hand, hospitalisation would be it (at the beginning of March 06).

One reproaches me my lack of collaboration with the medical profession.

For several months now, I have withstood this pressure

My conviction is that I am not guilty for my child behaviour, and I know That there are other methods of care, other care facilities.

Perhaps that those will not answer completely my expectations but I have The right to offer a chance to Mathieu.
Result, Mathieu is hospitalized almost since the end of June 2005.
To date, he is under risperdal (4mg) and atarax (25mg). Family separation was thus imposed to him.

But, he is still hitting himself again and again...