Dear Psychiatrist: Do Child Care Specialists Understand

A mother’s account of the childhood and adolescence of her special needs son. Tom was born with a handicap that affected both his mental and physical development. With help he did well until various unfortunate influences, chiefly bullying, gradually changed him from a happy nine-year-old to an anxious adolescent requiring psychiatric treatment. When he was 14, a minor shoplifting offence took Tom to court, an action which, to his parents, was a cry for help. It was through the court hearing that Tom’s parents came to see the psychiatrist’s report on the case, a report they saw as innaccurate in nearly every way. They were further disturbed on being refused a meeting with the psychiatrist to discuss their concerns, a major result of which was the mother’s decision to write the book. This book details the sufferings Jennie Roberts says she witnessed her son experiencing due to his handicap, and the difficulties imposed by the bullying and by the unhelpful attitudes encountered from some members of the teaching, medical, psychological and psychiatric professions. After Tom’s suicide in 1994, it was revealed that he was suffering from Asperger syndrome , a form of Autism.