I doubt anyone will read this but I want to make a record in case anything happens. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
First some context. I suffer from a ‘severe and enduring mental illness’ called Schizoaffective Disorder. (I have no time to explain its symptoms here but ppl can google it.) If you don”t mind I will refer to myself in the third person. (It’s easier that way). She was neglected for years by the NHS and then in 2014 her father died and she spent nearly a year slipping in and out of a state of psychosis and extreme changes in mood.
Eventually her GP realised how much she had deteriorated and she was finally admitted to hospital and was at last given the treatment she so desperately needed. An apology was issued (her mother, who lives in another city, had spent the entire year phoning them, informing them of her deteriorating state of mind). An apology was issued and it was acknowledged in writing that ‘(I) do not think this (illness) has been adequately treated at any point in the recent past’. They were also informed that this would never be allowed to happen again.
But now it *is* happening again. In May of this year she was unceremoniously discharged from services, apparently because she had ‘failed to engage in interventions’. (Whatever that means) She was also told that it was a matter of resources, although this has since been denied. She was informed of this in a letter which basically said ’goodbye and good luck’. This decision had been partially made by a new consultant psychiatrist who had seen het a grand total of one time. There was no preparation made for this discharge, no referrals to other agencies that could help, just a letter. She was despatched into the care of her GP with whom she had not had a working relationship for five long years.
These are the facts:
The fact that someone likes being asleep more than they like being awake
The fact that they see their dreams, however horrific, as preferable to being awake
The fact that someone never leaves the house, not even to get food
The fact that someone self neglects to the point of not washing properly for weeks
The fact that medication has reduced efficacy & psychotic symptoms are returning
The fact that this person does not see a real life human being, apart from those who deliver her food, for months at a time.
The fact that she finds it impossible to interact with other members of her own species, even on line
All this time devoid of human companionship when it has been established that this degree of extreme isolation can affect long term cognitive function
The fact that as every day passes her chances of returning to a normal life and interacting productively with society are reduced.
The fact that this person no longer sees any point in life itself
The fact that as each day passes this person is deteriorating further
One would imagine that these ’facts’ would be a cause of grave concern for those who are esponsible for this person’s care. But it is not. She telephones the duty team (as she has a right to do under Section 117) and is met with bewilderment (you can’t be that bad if you can eat), indifference, barely disguised contempt and even hostility. She gently suggests that maybe a brief spell in hospital would be sufficient to get her back on an even keel, even a slight increase in anti psychotic medication could help. This is what has happened in the past but she is informed that this ‘is not the the way things work any more’ and that to be hospitalised ‘one of us has to see you’ but they will not see her. And so we are at an impasse. And every day she loses touch with reality even more. She does not know how this will end.
