What people can do when they get help for mental illness - Elyn Saks

Quote:
When I was in college, I worked in a PCH that got many of its residents straight from Western Psychiatric Hospital. I worked overnights and was "charge nurse" so dispensed meds and took notes on the "residents." One of whom I had to involuntary commit one morning. Fun times.

It was not unusual for residents to have their meds adjusted over and over and over. The majority of the residents' personal docs didn't seem to either have much knowledge of drugs or drug interactions or maybe it was the inability to open a PDR or call a pharmacist or perhaps they just didn't care. More than one of our residents was suffering and our staff was told that the resident was in "end stages." In a few of those cases we could convince the family to switch docs to an actual physician specializing in geriatrics. Then all of a sudden voila! patient was better, not in "end stages" at all.

When I was finally done with school, I worked with MH/MR kids. I did behavior mods with kids with multiple diagnoses. Same thing with all the med changes and hospitalizations and crap shoot with docs.

It's just sad.

When my DD was having problems, we took her to a counselor and to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist is considered very good. He told us about a seminar he went to once where one of the topics was "Listening to Patients." He said that studies show that most doctors don't listen to what their patients are telling them. I think he is right. From what I have observed.
 
One of my best friends is schizophrenic. He is paranoid, and sees and hears stuff. he doesn't take his meds. I doubt he'll ever get hell bent on vengeance, but i suppose any of us could. he's a great guy, and i am so glad to have him in my life. regardless of his mental state.
 
5 years ago my mother age 71 who lived by herself was sick at home. She has type 2 diabetes. She had some kind of flu or something similar and was not eating. My sister who lived near her didn't see her for 3 days. When my mother didn't answer her call she went to check on her. My mother had gotten out of bed and walked down the hall and fallen down. She was on the floor for over 48 hours and didn't have anything to eat. She was delirious the whole time. My sister found her and gave her some OJ before the paramedics got there. They took her blood sugar at the ER and she was at 89. This was after she had a glass of OJ which is used to bring low blood sugar up fast.

She was in the hospital for 7 days. She was delirious the whole time and was actually violent. I talked to her on the phone before I flew down and she sounded normal. Then she would start talking about how the nurses were trying to kill her to and take her money from her retirement account. She had overheard them planning it. Her room was right next to the nurses desk. It was really weird. she stayed like that and the staff at the hospital was trying to get us to put her in a home for Alzheimer patients. We visited a couple and said no way. We had full access to her house and found a lot of unpaid bills and stuff she was neglecting. Very unusual for her. She was always very fastidious about her finances.

We ended up putting her in a place where they did PT on her to keep her from falling and made sure her diet and meds were monitored. She was not on any psychotic or anti depressant meds. Just the usual stuff for an overweight 70 year old. High BP, cholesterol, couple heart meds, Vicodin for her back and some other stuff.

Long story short she was ok after 3 months and they discharged her. She now lives in a semi assisted living place. She seems to be ok. My sister pays all her bills and manages her money for her. She also fills her pill tray once a week and makes sure everything is in order. Calls her every day too. I was upset at my sister when this first happened, but she is doing great now. It's quite a burden and I'm glad she's down there with Mom. My older sister and I live up here in the Denver area, but Mom says she can't handle the altitude so won't move up here. My mom seems to be ok, memory isn't what it used to be. She was always sharp as a tack. Almost 76 though and she knows she's not as sharp as she once was.

It seems like it was just medications that were not being well monitored by her doctor.
 

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