A local resident and mother to 16-year-old Roland Phillips is in desperate need of help for her son who has been running away from home since last year. Joleene Phillips said her son started disappearing from home when they moved to Effingham. “He started running away in January 2020, it was on and off, he would run away for one day or three days,” she said.
The mother of two said the situation started to get worse when she had to move to her sister’s house. “It was constant when I had to move to my sister’s house and now this is the fourth time since we moved to Rossburgh,” she explained. Joleene says even though Roland is out on the streets, the situation at home is less disruptive. “My youngest child is not smoking, food is lasting and so are the lights. We don’t have to hide our things and worry about other stuff being touched or broken. I feel bad for saying these things, but, unfortunately, it is the truth. He did and does not care about the next person just as long as he is happy and satisfied then that is all that matters to him,” said the mother. Joleene feels she has done everything in her power. “I have gone to the social workers for assistance as he wanted to be in the homes thinking it would be the best thing for him and he would be able to do as he pleases. So I involved the social workers and they told me that they cannot put him in a homes if he is smoking weed. I started the process of getting him into a rehab and was going to do his medicals and detox but he ran away from the couple that was looking after him while I was in this process,” she said.
The desperate mother said she would like Roland to get help to stop him smoking weed and also get him counselling so that he is able to talk to someone about his issues. “He does have issues stemming from when his grandfather passed on as they were extremely close, he needs the counselling. He also has ADHD but during lockdown, we had taken him off his medication as we felt he did not need them anymore,” she said. When asked how does Ronald’s younger brother feel about the situation, Joleene said, “Tyran feels kind of neglected because everyone is worried about his brother who doesn’t want to be found or helped. He feels that no one should worry about his brother due to his brother wanting this life and that no one forced him to be on the streets. Tyran loves his brother but he feels that Roland needs to catch a wake up in life and know that what he is doing is wrong.”
