NHS ban man ‘needs help’

The mother of a Mid Wales man given an Asbo banning him from every NHS hospital in the country has spoken out about her son’s mental health problems and the lack of support for families in their situation.

Diane Allam, of Newtown, believes her son Mark Smith may have Asperger’s Disorder but says she has struggled to get NHS officials to test him or give her concerns proper consideration.

Smith, 33, became only the second person in the UK to be given a nationwide Asbo for misuse of the health service.

He is banned from entering any NHS premises in the country without a prior appointment or written permission, other than in a genuine emergency. Today his mother demanded help and said his troubles with the NHS started when his father died suddenly in 1994.

“He was in London when he heard about his father’s death and the next thing I knew he was in hospital having taken an overdose,” she said.

Mrs Allam said the overdose was a cry for help and added: “Because of the way Mark is, he liked the sympathy and attention he got in hospital and that set a pattern for his future behaviour.”

Smith was given an Asbo by Welshpool magistrates this month when they heard he had been admitted to hospitals across the UK on at least 320 occasions, claiming to have taken an overdose or faking a heart attack.

Mrs Allam said it was not until 1995 that her son started “upping” his epileptic medication slightly to make hospitals believe he was suffering from an overdose or attack.

“He’d had all that sympathy after his dad died so he did it again and again,” she said.

“His GP even wrote to hospitals telling them what he did and I told them every time they rang me to say he had been admitted. They could have stopped him a long time before now but nobody ever bothered. That’s been the same all along, nobody has really got to grips with his problems.”

Mrs Allam added: “It hurts to see Mark described as ‘Asbo man’ and ‘an alcoholic’.”

She said he was diagnosed with grand mal epilepsy aged two, adding: “I watched a programme on television about someone with Asperger’s and I really believe that is what Mark has but nobody has ever tested him.”

By Deborah Knox