PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO SIGN THIS PETITION!!!

[Beenleigh]

You may have heard the story of Fran Lyon. If not, then this is a simplified version.

Fran is currently 31 weeks pregnant with her first baby
When Fran was sixteen years old, she was the victim of a serious sexual assault, and as a result, she suffered from mental health issues. She received therapy for two years, one year as an inpatient, and less than one following her discharge. She has not received or needed any mental health therapy since that time, and the psychiatrist that treated her has explicitly stated that she has no concerns whatsoever for Fran's mental health.

Unfortunately, early on in Fran?s pregnancy, there was a difficult situation with her (then) partner, and Fran called the police. Due to the nature of the problem and combined with the fact that Fran was pregnant, the police referred the case to social services. Fran was completely honest and open about her past mental health issues, and clear that she no longer suffered from any such problems. However, a ball had started rolling out of control, and a paediatrician, who has never actually met or spoken to Fran, has inexplicably suggested that she may in due course suffer from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. This has resulted in social services deciding that upon her birth, Fran?s baby daughter, Molly, will be taken away from her.

It is abundantly clear that Fran Lyon will be absolutely no danger to her baby, but we suggest that at the very least, Fran should at be allowed to stay in an assessment unit with her baby, Molly, pending an inevitable decision that she is capable of caring for her daughter independently.

Please take a few minutes to watch this clip of Fran being interviewed on This Morning: uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2qHcH_Eaocg

Please please sign the petition here: www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/539543596

Also, please could you copy and paste this post and send it as an email to as many people as possible, obviously feeling free to correct my crappy spelling and grammar!

Many Thanks

done

signed

119!!

I hope you're right Bossy, I'm worried that it will lose momentum!
Have just started this thread in case anyone else fancies asking the Today programme to cover the story:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1372/419808?stamp=071108104101

Signed!

Why have the Guardian, Times, BBC etc ignored this news item?

Signed.

Keep those signatures coming!!!

MM

signed, surprised this hasnt been escalated and sorted out before now, ss not showing themselves in the best light are they?

Upwind, email them! That would be brilliant.
Will do so myself later, but children calling now!

signed and sent on

signed and sent email.

I am completely shocked at the secrecy of the family courts and will be writing to my MP to express my concerns. And I feel sympathy for Fran - if the case is as cut and dried as it appears then she is indeed the victim of injustice and I hope she wins her case.
However I do have some concerns and can't help thinking that it can't be so simple there must be more.
My first concern is what the incident was that happened when she was pregnant - I understand why she does not want to give details but think that it is very difficult to actually assess any situation without having all the facts.
Also to be a psychiatric in-patient for 1 year would signify that this girl had very significant problems and a danger to herself or others - I wonder in what way her self-harm manefested itself and if infact it was violent and extreme eg. is her trachyostomy a result of her own actions. Was it just a short term problem that was treated and cured or does she have a more underlying personality disorder - often these do not continue to be treated by psychiatric services.
I often deal with patients at work that have personality disorders and self harm issues and they have not had their children removed even though at time I personally wonder why as some situations are quite dire. If a child is removed often it will go to the care of another family member - why has this not happened in this case?
I also have been witness to new mothers suffering serious mental illness post-partum and they have been nursed in mother and baby units and not separated so I can't understand why this case has gone the way it has.

Beenleigh - email it to the newsdesks of all of the newspapers or has that been tried already? maybe the more that send it to them the more they might take notice?

agree elesbells, the more the better,
If you send any please could you link to the relevent email address here or on the other thread, so that we can all just copy and paste easily?

don't sign it then waynetta

signed the petition - and also posted a reference to Fran's case on the Times Alphamummy website, on the comments about the Sally Clark case - timesonline.typepad.com/alphamummy/2007/11/a-sobering-thou.html?cid=89195668#comment-89195668

Comments and views on this site often end up in Times articles - so might be worth a few more people adding to the discussion there..

what a brillian idea? Other message boards! Hadn;t thought of that!!

i have signed, i know we dont know this girls story in full, but i was abused as a child, i suffered depression, then ond when i had my dd, i was classed as 'high risk'during pg, but that was because of my weight..not only am i mum to happy 4 yr old, i am childminder of 7 other children, and fully regsitered with everyone(ofsted/ncma etc) knowing my past!..this isnt right, they should not take the baby away, more help needs to be given to her

signed and bump

bump

Hello Waynetta,

I wish I had more information to give you - sadly I don't.

I understand your concern about the initial incident - I won't go into details because it's not my place to. All I can say is that it had nothing to do anything I had done - but I had to act in order to protect Molly and I. Steps have been taken to ensure that the situation could not ever recur.

My self harm was pretty mundane as it goes. I cut my arms. I haven't done so since I was 16. Adolescent inpatient stays are often a lot longer than adult stays - I don't necessarily think that's a good thing, but it is reasonably usual. The year that I spent as an inpatient was spent voluntarily in a therapeutic unit - I wasn't acutely unwell, I just needed an intensive period of therapy in order to move things forward in my life.

I was diagnosed with a personality disorder but that took place when I was 15/16. It has never been diagnosed in adulthood. The most recent assessments, undertaken for social services, show that I do not have a PD. Sadly, you are right in that people with PD are often abandoned by psych services - but fortunately this is slowly changing. It's now recognised as a very treatable condition, and new services are being/have been established to do precisely that.

I'm not saying I'm perfect - I'm sure there are many issues that I could work on (though I suspect to a degree we could all say that). I'm not saying social services are wrong to be involved. I just don't think there is any need for their intervention to be so extreme - especially considering that I am willing, if not eager, to attend a mother and baby unit.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Fran

signed and forwarded via email to other people to sign

signed

Signed, bumped and emailed to address book!

signed.

And the PM site is covering depression on Saturday in the Interactive PM programme. they want comments before they decide which stories to run apparently.
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2007/11/random_ideas_mrsa_powell_and_b.shtml

At the bottom of the page.

excellent MamaPyjama, have emailed them.