Mum-of-three Leo Andrade “freed” her son Stephen after seven years locked up in autism treatment units.
Her battle led to the steps of Downing Street, where she handed in a 50,000-name petition.
Stephen, 26, was kept in four units – sometimes in isolation and injected with powerful anti-psychotic drugs.
He is like many who have gone into hospital, initially for short-term care, but then becoming trapped in the mental health system.
Leo, 56, from North London, said Stephen now has his own place with three carers looking after him.
She said: “He’s no longer in those horrible places, but it was one hell of a battle to get him out.
“I feel for parents whose children are still inside. Why are we still locking them up when the Government promised years ago this would end?”
Leo is now trying to have Stephen moved nearer to her, so she doesn’t have to travel two hours across London on public transport to see him.
She said: “It’s like they want to keep you away from your children. I want to be able to pop round and have a cup of tea with Stephen a few times a week but that’s impossible where he is now. Why can’t they be near their families?”
Children stuck in hell hole homes despite Tory promises
Kids and adults with autism and learning disabilities are still locked up in hell-hole homes – 10 years after a Tory pledge to shut them.
A BBC Panorama probe in 2011 showed patients at the Winterbourne View unit in Gloucestershire being violently restrained, pinned under chairs and punished with cold showers.
Ministers vowed to halve numbers in homes by 2015 and ultimately move up to 3,500 into supported living.
But there have been 9,400 admissions since 2015 and more than 2,000 are still in the units, many in their teens and 20s.
An expert who reviewed Government plans in 2014 said a pledge to reform had been broken.
Sir Stephen Bubb, author or Winterbourne View – Time For Change, said: “I am truly shocked. I plan to write to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to urge him to stop new admissions.
“It’s the only way to close these places. The numbers are still staggeringly high when you think it is 10 years since a pledge to end this form of care.
"We cannot go on incarcerating people in these places. They don’t deserve to be locked away.”
Winterbourne patients were drugged, put in punishment rooms and fed through a hatch.
The private hospital was shut in 2011 and 11 staff prosecuted for ill-treatment.
On Friday it was revealed Cawston Park hospital, near Aylsham, Norfolk – which cared for adults with learning disabilities and autism – was closed after “consistent failures”.
Last night, one father said his 18-year-old son, at an NHS mental health hospital, spent 10 months in tiny rooms intended to be used for 48 hours. The dad said: “We can’t get them to move him. It’s inhuman.”
Dan Scorer of mental health charity Mencap, said missed targets and broken vows “left people worried that transformation is not happening at the pace needed”.
Ministers say The NHS Long Term Plan is to halve in-patient numbers of adults and children with a learning disabilities and autistic people by 2023-24.
The Department of Health said there had been a 30% drop since 2015.
Care Minister Helen Whately said: “Autistic people and those with learning disabilities deserve dignity and respect. I’m determined to see them receive safe, high-quality care.”
