I am headed to visit a family member

[quakerboy]

in the hospital. Her emergency contact just called to let "someone in the family" know "they picked her up". Bipolar is a bitch of a thing, particularly when its untreated and ignored. I plan to come back and discuss this more later,

[quakerboy]

1. Well, they plan to keep her tonight

We found the car on one side of town, near nothing, and have snippets of story from various places. None of which add up to a coherent story, even using a "whats the simplest explanation" method.

The car was abandoned at a random country corner, about 10 miles out of town. It still had gas. Supposedly she was picked up by police at a grocery store about 10 miles from the car, acting "oddly". But there is no apparent explanation on how she got there. She does NOT walk, nor does she use public transit, not that there is any there. They supposedly took her to the apartments where she told them she lived(but hasn't for a year). according to the story, the manager recognized her, and called her outdated emergency contact, her former employer, who called us, and her neighbor/former coworker(the source of the story, all he told us was "she's at the hospital". The police then took her to the hospital.

Here's where it gets weird. The hospital social worker called us en route. She got the number from previous police reports. She was found wandering dazed and confused in the "birthing center" by a security guard who took her to the ER. Where they checked her in, and she currently is, belligerent and unhappy.

So.. how did she get from car to hospital? If the police were involved, why did they not contact family, or at least check her in at the hospital? We got her keys, locked up the house, tracked down the car and took it home, and otherwise tried to take care of the practical issues that could be addressed tonight.

They are keeping her overnight. Some county worker will examine her tomorrow, and they may release her, if she can pull it together and put on a face. Or not, seeing as she seems to be in full psychotic break. What course of action can we take that is the most likely to be better for her in the long term?

[elleng]

2. Have her 'committed' somewhere, so she'll be diagnosed and treated,

receive proper meds. A professor and I did this for a law school friend of mine, MANY moons ago. Sounds like a 'must do.' Lucky they found her family.

Good luck to all.

[quakerboy]

3. How do you do that?

About a month back, we called for an in home evaluation. She managed top bluff the cops into believing nothing was critically wrong.

By what we found at her place, she has not been taking her meds since December.

But, given that she believes nothing is wrong with her, and adds a healthy dose of paranoia, she is not going to be committed voluntarily. So how do you do that?

[elleng]

4. Don't recall exactly, but took her to hospital, I think.

They did eval, and we (prof, actually) said he was her 'closest' person (my friends family was in another state, we were not in touch.)

So yours actually has meds prescribed? Hospital should have been able to do accurate eval by now/tomorrow, you think? Don't really know, but try, as her closest family, to persuade hospital to admit her, in order to stabilize her.

Good luck.

E

[quakerboy]

5. Yup. This is not the first psychotic break

nor the first hospitalization. The hospital she is in does not do psych. They are holding her only until one of the larger hospitals with a psych ward gets an open bed. For tonight, they have her on a "hold" given her very confused and apparently belligerent state (we did not see her, but so were told). Between that, general statements of self harm, and other family members concerns that she might attempt to cause me harm, she is not going anywhere on her own until the county person sees her tomorrow.

At that point the hope is that they will hold her for a while to stabilize her, get her back on her meds. I guess that would be getting committed? Based on past experience, if they do this, she will realize how bad it is, and start taking her meds. This state may hold up to a couple years, if they can achieve it. But if they dump her back out without that time and stabilization, then at best she will be back in a few weeks, at worst, something unknown and unpredictable.

[elleng]

6. Don't really know what 'committed' means; sorry.

But 'admitted' sounds good at the moment, and if they'll hold her until she's 'stable,' that would be good. I understand that the issue of taking meds or not is a very difficult one. Fingers crossed.

[murielm99]

7. It might depend on where you live.

I know a family whose mother/grandmother is bipolar. Every once in a while, she does something that gets law enforcement involved. The last time, she went driving (she has had no license in years) and had an accident in a construction zone.

She was committed by law enforcement, her doctor and her husband. She was on her meds for six weeks, and sent home. She was not there voluntarily, and they could not keep her any longer legally. She was her old self while she was on the meds for six weeks. But she went off them after some time passed. The side effects make her life miserable.

This was not the first time she was in for six weeks and then sent home.

I don't think it is that easy to keep someone indefinitely. And you really can't force feed an adult their medication. Someone who is clearly a danger to themselves and others might be kept longer, but I just don't know.

[EFerrari]

8. One of my net friends who was bi-polar told me

once that she called an ER and told them she was decompensating and they told her not to bother them until she was running in traffic.

If someone gets her meds to her right and right away, she will get a benefit in 12, 24, 48 hours. The real settling down will take at least two weeks. That time is crucial.

That this is happening to anyone in this country is an obscenity.

:grouphug:

[mopinko]

9. unfortunately, they don't keep people long enough

when we had to hospitalize my daughter, bp at 16, we had a hard time. we basically had to convince them that she was suicidal or at least that she was endangering herself with her cutting, and might go 'too far'. but even then they only kept her for a week. she was put in a day school program for another couple weeks. that was it.
she was not even close to stabilized, nor did they think she was. a danger to themselves or others is the rule.
and we have great insurance, too.

best of luck helping her. it is so hard to deal with this disease.