Autistic man detained in hospital unit for 20 years
Ordeal of patient, 44, ‘treated like an animal’ 120 miles away from his family
THE parents of an autistic man detained in hospital for 20 years say it is as if their son has been held in ‘isolation in prison’.
Tony Hickmott, 44, has been ‘treated like an animal’ in a secure unit 120 miles away from his family since 2001 as authorities repeatedly failed to find him suitable accommodation.
His parents Roy, 81, and Pam, 78, can only manage the two-hour drive to visit him from their home in Brighton once a week.
He is one of 100 people with learning disabilities being held in secure Assessment and Treatment Units (ATU) – designed to be a short-term safe space used in a crisis – in england for two decades in a care scandal exposed by the BBC.
He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2001 when his parents were told he would receive treatment for nine months before returning home.
Although he was eventually declared ‘fit for discharge’ in 2013, he is still waiting for authorities to find him a suitable home with the right level of care.
Whistleblower Phil Devine, who worked at the private facility where Mr Hickmott lives between 2015 and 2017, said he was ‘treated like an animal’ and was the ‘loneliest man in the hospital’.
The support worker said unlike other patients, Mr Hickmott had very little freedom and spent all of his time in ‘solitary confinement’.
‘Tony had very little on his ward, in terms of things to stimulate him, engage him or anything like that.’
He added: ‘Almost like an animal, he was fed, watered and cleaned. If anything happened beyond that, wonderful, but if it didn’t, then it was still okay.’
Mr Hickmott’s parents were previously forbidden from talking about his case because of a gagging order overturned last month.
Mr Hickmott said: ‘His mental condition has deteriorated massively. He’s not the same person he was. He is depressed, upset and lonely all the time and doesn’t get any one-on-one stimulation. Often he is left eight or nine hours without speaking to anyone at all.’
The retired electrical engineer accused staff of leaving his only son ‘looking like a tramp’ because he was often left unwashed and his teeth not brushed.
He added: ‘Tony used to make us cups of tea in the morning but he’d never be able to do that now. The skills he had have gone because of the lack of proper care. Instead of getting help, he’s been abandoned in there.’
Mrs Hickmott, a former NHS worker, added: ‘He is so lonely that he’s started talking to himself. He’ll ask a question and then answer it like it was a carer.
‘He tells himself to go and sit down or go to the bathroom. It’s just pitiful.’
Mr Hickmott’s case is being heard at the Court of Protection which makes decisions on welfare matters for people who ‘lack mental capacity’. Senior Judge Carolyn Hilder said he had been ‘detained for so long’ partly due to a ‘lack of resources’.
His care in the hospital is paid for by the NHS but the cost of housing and caring for him in the community falls to the family’s local authority Brighton and Hove Council.
The council said it was ‘very sorry’ to hear of the concerns raised and they were ‘working with Mr Hickmott’s parents, NHS colleagues and a new housing provider’.
Last year, the hospital was put into special measures and the company that ran it – which is not being named to protect Mr Hickmott’s care – was sold.
The company which took over the facility said it ‘denies that the care which Mr Hickmott receives is inadequate, and the standards at the hospital where he lives have been judged by the Care Quality Commission to be improving’.
‘Loneliest man in the hospital’