A national plan to improve Tourette syndrome services
Speech in Senedd on 21st January 2026 Tourette's is a complex and misunderstood condition. And yet it’s a common one. It is a brain disorder that affects 1 in 100 people. That’s a similar prevalence as autism, or childhood epilepsy, but it doesn’t get the same recognition - either from the general public or from the health service. If most people know anything about Tourette's at all, it's that it makes people swear and shout in public. And the excellent new Bafta nominated film, I Swear, which I would recommend to all, to some degree reinforces that stereotype. In fact the vast majority of people with Tourette’s do not have a compulsion to swear. But as the film also captures they do suffer pain, anxiety and isolation. And yet people think Tourettes is funny. It's not. It causes great distress, and pain. Tourettes is not in itself a psychological condition, nor a behavioural one, nor is it caused by poor parenting. It’s a complex neurodevelopmental conditi...