maddisonSenior Contributor
Made to feel silly for trying to prevent worsening symptoms
It's been a very stressful 24 hours. I can see warning signs of relapse (schizophrenia) of my friend of nearly 20 years, whom I live with.
In the last 10 days, he has slept around 3. His behaviour is manic & since this morning has become verbally aggressive/abusive. I have been in contact with his case worker over this period. She has made no effort to assess him, and is mostly uninvolved/absent in his care, compared to previous nurses he has had.
I have been worried about him for last fortnight. There are plenty of times where he is kind & coherent. I have noticed a decline, enough that my sleep has been affected by the stress.
This morning, after he had a delusion that I had stolen a note that he had written & started yelling, swearing at me while I was still in bed, I decided we were at crisis point & reached out to mental health health triage. Eventually, they arranged ITT to come out and assess him. I spoke with them and explained everything. I tried to explain that he needed more support than I, or 15 mins with his nurse could give. I said he was at beginning of relapse & I believed he needed short time in hospital to prevent him becoming sicker & resulting in likely needing longer stay.
Long story short. They refused to take him. His bags were packed (an indication in my mind, that he knew he needed help) The basic reasoning I was given was that he is not sick enough yet. They would prefer to "keep him in the community as long as possible." ??? I tried to insist that I knew he needed help, and the male nurse turned his back on me.
They are arranging to come back tonight and give him sleeping medication. They also stated that his usual nurse will follow up tomorrow. It feels an inadequate response. I know my friend, I know he won't ask for help, I know he needs more intense support at the moment.
I don't know, maybe it was the right decision by professionals. Then again, If they had seen some of behaviour I have seen in last few days, there would be no question he would be hospitalised.
They make their assessment after speaking to him for 20 mins, when he's semi ok state & disregard everything I've said. When I see him suffering with his mental health condition, I feel totally helpless. It makes me sad to see someone I care about, having to suffer.
He has become so unwell in the past that recovery has been a long & difficult. I want to try and prevent that for him. He knew and accepted what I was doing. He wasn't full of hate and anger like other times, where I had second guessed my intuition & delayed getting him help, and the illness had progressed to completely unmanageable state to where he would be completely incoherent.
The assessment nurse, for unknown reason, dismissed my intentions. Offered band aid care imo & had little interest in trying to understand or care for myself & friend.
Thanks for reading. Feel disillusioned by the whole process. I've literally been told today that I must wait for my friend to be really suffering before bothering to get him support.
