Disability care: Your stories

The prime minister has said he will write to a woman who says she may have to put her severely disabled daughter into care, as she can no longer cope.

Riven Vincent, from Bristol, posted a message on the Mumsnet website saying her local council had told her it could not provide more help.

BBC News website readers and parents of disabled children have been sending in their reaction.

Helen (not her real name), Berkshire

I have a disabled child and life before the cuts was wretchedly hard, now, we are even more fearful for the future.

We moved a few years ago and found that our new authority judged our respite needs as being less than half of what we were getting before we moved.

We still have the same child, whose disabilities are unchanged, and in some ways have become worse. He has behavioural issues and that makes care even more exhausting.

My child does not sleep, so I do not either. My child has no sense of danger, I can not relax. My child is easily confused and becomes easily distressed. I just want to feel less tired, less frightened.

We have not been on holiday for over six years, we virtually never go out as a family. We do not eat out, we have no social life, other than with close family.

As carers we are in a minority in the general populous, as carers of disabled children we are an even greater minority, our voice is not loud.

Services to the disabled are being cut, precisely because we don't count, we are not really worth bothering about as far as our voting power goes.

We are very often too tired, too busy, too exhausted mentally and physically to stand up and shout enough is enough, and please help.

I have felt at times that I should chain myself to the railings of No 10 to beg for help.

Barbara Brooks, Basingstoke

I am the mother of four disabled children and have been told on numerous occasions that there is "no help available", mainly because my children are not considered "at risk" and because I own my own, albeit overcrowded, home.

This is never about the people, the children or their carers. This is a political and money based issue.

The government gets away with paying us home-based carers just 32p an hour! Regardless of how much work we have to do, or how many disabled family members we care for.

We are unable to go out to work because we have to be on call for those we care for. We do want to work, we're educated, but because I'm on call 24/7 I can't.

I know of other mothers in far worse circumstances than me, mothers who provide physical hands on nursing care for their disabled child 24 hours a day and still only get 32p an hour for the privilege.

They are forced to live in over crowded, desperately unsuitable homes, often to the detriment of their disabled child's physical welfare.

We try so hard and yet there is no help for us. Where is the justice in this? Why is proper care not being provided?

Good mums get no help. If children are well cared for and not at risk then we get no help.

Lesley Kane, Glasgow

As working parents we certainly have our hands full caring for our severely autistic, non-verbal and very challenging son.

Sleepless nights and constant physical struggles are just some of the hardships we as a family go through raising a child with autism.

I've never really been able to truly comprehend why this has happened, in fact it has taken years for me to stop asking "why".

This I believe has only been possible thanks to the support we as a family receive from Action For Children.

We haven't failed to recognise the affects our actions have on our oldest son.

He is 14-years-old, and the unconditional love he has for his brother, and the unrelenting struggle to help his brother is overwhelming.

But sadly he can get lost in the crisis of autism, so needs support himself.

He tries to make life easier for me, sometimes keeping a low profile, trying to spare an already overtaxed family system additional stress.

I often wonder if I've made the right decisions for Tony, but when he runs towards me with a big smile and gives me a hug with a tight squeeze, I know we're doing OK.