Seeking Advise**Brother in Law Recently diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Refusing to get help or take meds.

Hello All,

My brother in law (34 years old) recently had a psychotic episode at his parents house that allowed the family to call Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team. This is his 2nd breakdown in a year and a half. The first time we noticed something was off with my brother in law, we were notified by a friend of his who is a police officer that had noticed significant changes in his behaviour and was very worried for his mental health. My brother in law's mom immediately went to his home to discover he was quite unwell and brought him back to our family home. [edited by moderator] He is very paranoid and delusional. He does not believe anything is "wrong" with him. He believes he has a full handle on his mental health and is smarter than most doctors and counsellors. We knew something was very wrong then but didn't want to push him away from being safe. The more we discussed with doctors, counsellors, and other professionals they said we needed to convince him to seek help and that their really wasn't much else that could be done unless he was a harm to himself or others. He has been unemployed for 1.5 years now and seemingly not well enough to work. His recent episode came on when his GF of 6 years who has been living overseas, told him she did not want to pursue the relationship if he didn't seek help. He denied this conversation and said she was moving home and everything was great. He then spiralled and became multiple versions of himself, drove a car, abandoned it, forgot he drove it, and began speaking to himself. He eventually asked for help which allowed us to get him to hospital with IMCRT but when he arrived at hospital he said it was because he had fallen off his bike and hit his head, which didn't happen. He spent three days involuntary in hospital and refused to sign a medical release so we are unable to talk with Doctors. One did happen to call Dad's phone because my brother in law had put his number instead of his. [edited by moderator] They've told us they suspect he is Schizophrenic and needs to be medicated and monitored with care. He threw away his prescription and refuses to go to the Doctor. We are at a loss for what to do. He gets very defensive, dismissive, and agitated when any convo about him is brought up.

Any advice from someone who has been the person needing help to undergo diagnosis and families that have supported this would be very helpful.

Thank you so much