A desperate mum has had to resort to using handcuffs to restrain her mentally ill son, due to the lack of support from mental health services.

Joely Hignett's 24-year-old son Kyle Hignett, who has what's known as Borderline Personality Disorder, needs to be restrained to stop him from harming himself and others.

The mother of two released ‘distressing’ footage of Kyle sobbing and screaming to raise awareness of his condition on social media. She spoke to 5 live’s Adrian Chiles about why she felt the need to restrain her son with handcuffs.

“He will come to me and say, ‘It’s time for handcuffs, I can feel it coming on strong. For most people this would be very distressing.”