"If my daughter had cancer and not a psychiatric problem, she would have school transportation."

BarcelonaWithout adapted school transport to take her daughter from school psychiatric unit where she is admitted in Sant Boi de Llobregat To the high school in the Barcelona district of Sant Martí, Laura Trabal worked as a taxi driver so that the girl, now 15, could continue her academic activities. For three months, from January to March, she explains that she would pick her up, wait in front of the school gate in case she had to go rescue her, and take her back to the hospital. But, without her own vehicle, there came a time when the rental car bill was too much for the family economy and she couldn't maintain that routine. At the beginning of this school year, for the moment, the daughter also doesn't attend regular classes and must settle for the hour ofhospital classroom a day, "completely insufficient" to be able to continue her studies.

Trabal, however, does not want to settle and demands from the Department of Education the right for her daughter to continue with mainstream education to the extent that her condition allows.We ask for rights, not favors", she insists, while making her fight a collective one for the "hundreds of boys and girls" she estimates are in the same situation because "the Government, the regional ministry, is not responding." When asked, the department maintains that the teenager does not have a medical discharge to be able to leave the center where she is admitted and go to class. Instead, each day they both go out through Sant Boi to spend a few hours together, away from the restrictions and regulations of the Adolescent Care Unit (UCA) at Benito Menni Hospital. "daughter advises her to go to high school," she replies, adding that, in addition, the girl is very motivated. Trabal denounces the "discrimination" that families and people with mental health problems face compared to those with organic illnesses. "It's hard because I know that if my daughter had cancer, she would have school transportation," she would have school transportation."

Trabal's daughter has a autism spectrum disorder (ASD) A second-grade disability and a psychiatric illness that has caused her to relapse and be hospitalized several times. The last time was in June, although she was also there for much of the first quarter of this year, when she was able to attend school thanks to her mother's perseverance and financial efforts. But the woman can no longer afford more expenses like this and finds herself unable to manage her on public transportation throughout the metropolitan area. "My daughter has hospitalitis, the illness of those who are in long-term care and it would be good if it expanded its world and did not grow institutionalized," says Trabal, in line with the intervention model in this area in which the isolation of patients is avoided and the aim is to ensure that they do not lose social ties. For this reason, often, one of the preferred activities is for friends from the center or institute to video call their closest circle.

Trabal is an activist for Union of Mothers with Disabilities, a group that brings together some 200 families (most of them single-parent) with children with disabilities to demand compliance with the rights that correspond to both the children and them as non-professional caregivers. "We are the ones who do the work in the administration free of charge, at cost of our health", they never tire of repeating.