It’s every mother’s worst nightmare to see their child living on the streets, especially when they’re offering them a way out, but that’s exactly what’s happening to Leanne Thompson.
The Brisbane mother has watched her son Daniel living it rough in Melbourne for four months, suffering psychotic episodes and committing crimes, all the while begging him to come home.
Leanne and her husband often fly down to Melbourne to try keep him safe, which leaves Leanne often forced to sleep alongside him on the street and resulted in a heartbreaking photo on the front of The Herald Sun.
She says after she moved interstate with her husband, Daniel became destitute scarily fast.
From private school education and trips overseas, he went from a “normal” life to chasing drugs while sleeping in Melbourne CBD in less than a year.
Leanne is with him so often, she’s become familiar with the homeless people around him, many of whom don’t understand why the 25-year-old is refusing help.
“I’ve been trying to get accommodation and I can’t. This person got everything he wants, doesn’t want it,” one man, Darren, told Nine News.
“I thought, ‘What a lucky kid, he’s got parents who care.’”
WATCH: Homeless people in Sydney forcibly removed, right underneath flags campaigning for the homeless.
Talking to Tony Jones on 3AW, Leanne said despite the support from almost everyone else, “when people have an addiction they lose that capacity to make the correct decisions for their own well-being.”
Leanne blames Daniel’s addiction to ice and synthetic marijuana, which is legal in Victoria, for his lifestyle.
“It’s become almost as big a problem as alcohol abuse now,” Leanne said.
“It’s very, very, difficult, I just keep questioning why? We have [four] other children, they’re all succeeding and doing very well in life. It’s very difficult to keep it together.
Leanne is currently petitioning the government for changes to the Mental Health Act to allow involuntary treatment to try get him off the streets.
