JoK86Casual Contributor
Challenging diagnosis & seeking trial off involuntary treatment
Hello,
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this and has any advice to offer. It's a long one so bear with me please.
My Dad (68) has been under an involuntary treatment (community, not hospital-based) order for paranoid schizophrenia with delusional tendencies for the past 17 years. His behaviour doesn't put himself or others at risk, his delusions relate to environmental factors in his home and diet purportedly negatively affecting his health (e.g. the paint in his home, non-organic foods etc).
He has always, from day one, objected to the diagnosis and fought treatment - to the point of even evading Police who come to escort him to hospital for depot (injections) of [edited by moderatored]. During the course of his treatment, he has continued to display many of the same behaviours despite being medicated.
Given his objections and constant absconding from treatment, in March this year Queensland Health transitioned him from a monthly dosage of **mg via injection to ***mg [edited by moderator] via injection every six months. Since then, he has continued to show many of the same delusional tendencies, if not having escalated somewhat. He has also been fairly tangential in his thought process and discussions.
Less than two weeks ago, he started suffering (or claiming to suffer, I can't confirm as I live far away) from shortness of breath, chest pains, lethargy and inability to complete relatively easy tasks. Purportedly due to factors in his home. Not being able to withstand the symptoms anymore he presented to his local hospital emergency where they did tests and confirmed no signs of any heart or lung issues, or causes of same. During the visit though, they administered a further medication [edited by moderator]; despite him being only four months into what was supposed to be a six-monthly dosage, which was - in itself - above the ***mg/month dosage he had been receiving and claimed negative health effects from. [edited by moderator]
Since that time he has been even more delusional. In the past week, for the first time ever, he mentioned to me that he thought his home had been broken into multiple times and items taken; and also that whoever broke in had found the location of his keys by listening to his phone calls or monitoring him via the camera in his computer. He's never displayed such delusions before.
So, I'm wondering - if his delusions are exacerbated by increased dosages - is there something that can be done to challenge the dosage? And, if his delusions have never been resolved by treatment, is the diagnosis correct? Is the antipsychotic he is being treated with actually working? Should he be granted a trial off his treatment, or at least have the dosage lowered? Noting that he will not agree to voluntary treatment and will continue to abscond from any dosage, as he challenges the objection.
I have no idea how to navigate the complex Queensland mental health system to support him. And I'm not qualified to challenge the validity of his diagnosis. I can tell you that he still has bouts of severe delusions, but I have not tracked how these time with his involuntary objections. Is there anything that I can do to support him?
