"It was a desperate situation, we were in a position of trying to find solutions. My cry now is for families like mine that suffer at the hands of inadequate support.
"There's a lot of families out there that are not getting the help they need and if they are, it's like ours, it's not in a professional environment.
She said there was no funding for the care Otto needed. "I want [the Government] to institute the right mechanisms."
Her son was briefly in the care of charitable trust Spectrum Care, which let him go because it could not get enough funding to cater for his needs, she said.
Arohanui Special School principal James Le Marquand knows the situation too well. Otto was a pupil at Arohanui at the time of his death.
"Audrey never had any organisation that was giving her the respite support, that was working under some strict guidelines and with trained people," he said.
The Herald on Sunday contacted the Ministry of Health but was told no one was available to comment before the paper's deadline.
Rapihana said Care Group had hired the caregiver as an independent contractor.
