A ROSYTH mum has started a social media campaign in the desperate hope of getting her disabled son discharged from a hospital where he has been looked after since March.

Margaret Barclay wants her son, Jack Walls, to be settled in a new home and fears that if something isn’t sorted soon, her bubbly, happy 20-year-old will become institutionalised.

Back in March, Jack became ill after developing a sore leg and, after three weeks in the Victoria Hospital, he was transferred to the neurological unit in Cameron Hospital in Windygates where he has now been for 12 weeks.

The illness resulted in Jack losing all of his mobility except for in one hand.

A care plan had already been in place for Jack but this has not been altered since his situation worsened, which means the family had been expected to manage with the same level of help and support they had previously.

Margaret, a single mum, is now unable to look after Jack without more care provision and she and her three daughters have resigned themselves to the heartbreaking thought that he will have to live elsewhere.

In a desperate attempt to ensure Jack is OK, she suggested he could move into her housing association home which is already fully-adapted to her son’s needs and she would move out, allowing full-time carers in.

This hasn’t proved possible and a room has been found for him in a social work property in Kelty.

However, she has now been told there could be a possible four-month wait for him to move in as a wet room needs to be created.

Not wanting her son to have another four months in hospital, Margaret, of Boyle Drive, had asked that he come home in the meantime if care was provided during the day but no care provider has been found to enable this. She has set up a Facebook page, Get Jack Home, in the hope of reaching someone who can help do just that.

“The reality of this for myself and my family has been heartbreaking,” she said. “When his sisters left home there was always great excitement as they went off on their new adventures, however, this was a choice taken from us and nobody wanted this, not Jack, not me and not our family.

“From Fife Council’s point of view, it was not possible to put in 24-hour care for Jack, even though I offered to move out of our home so that Jack could stay in his home.

“He did have a care package in place but he needs to have it changed as he has no mobility at all – he needs to be transferred onto the toilet or wherever he wants to go. Things are very different for him but they are not prepared to extend that care package. It is really difficult. It was hard enough when he got ill and then it became obvious that I was not going to be able to manage this and I knew we had to find something now and get him sorted where I am still able to visit him and he will be more settled.”

Having hired a mobility vehicle which allows her to transport Jack in his wheelchair, Margaret has been able to bring him home for visits when she and one of her daughters is not working but they face sadness when they have to take him back to hospital. “Jack himself is very confused,” she added. “He has been up to Kelty and we talk about his new home, he comes here and then he is back at the hospital. He doesn’t know where he is at. He is a really content boy and a really pleasant person to have around but I think he is already getting institutionalised.”

Julie Paterson, Fife Health & Social Care Partnership’s divisional general manager, said they were working with Jack, his mother and multi-disciplinary colleagues to agree a package of support jointly that will support his safe discharge from hospital as soon as possible.

She added: “We’re making every effort to match appropriate care services with the family’s offers of continued support. There is a shared commitment to ensure safe, supportive community care arrangements.”