You're Not Paying Me Enough To Do That...

[Seshat]

Hello The Hurting.

Resident crazy person (medicated!) here, with an even more crazy best friend. Here to give you my perspective on the situation you were put in.

FYI, my best friend is schizoaffective (related to, but not exactly, schizophrenia. Which, despite some movies and books, is not 'split personality' aka Dissociative Identity. She's about as severe as one can get without needing supportive care, and she wouldn't be able to function without supportive care without having my husband and I living with her - we act as her carers.

She also acts as one of my carers (my husband is the other); I have both physical and mental disabilities. I like to tell people we're a tripod: all three of us falling over, but supported by the other two.


So. From my perspective:

You're absolutely right. You have no training in handling potentially unstable people. Even those who do have training can screw up badly.*

If a person is unable to function in society on his/her own, in an ideal world (or when I'm Queen of the World!), we'd have carers looking after them. Unfortunately, at present the world is less than ideal.
(Don't get me started on the state of mental health welfare and support. We'll be here for hours.)

It may be worth investigating care support - free, supported-cost or low-cost - and offering such information to this woman when she next shows up. You may need management approval to do this.



* We once had a triage nurse - a NURSE, presumably trained in dealing with 'difficult' patients! - anger A so badly I had to take both A's hands in my own and talk her down to prevent A from taking a swing at her. And this when the nurse had been warned A was schizoaffective.
A is normally perfectly safe to be around; but not when she's scared as hell for my life. We were in the ER because I was very, very sick - and the nurse had come over to tell A to stop crying. :/

[The Hurting]

It may be worth investigating care support - free, supported-cost or low-cost - and offering such information to this woman when she next shows up. You may need management approval to do this.

She also has two children, who I think could be of great help to her in the event that she forgets her medication. But I don't know what her relationship is towards them.

But what you stated is a good option though

[Seshat]

Family often 'burns out' trying to care for chronically ill family members. The support for unpaid carers just isn't there either.

I could go into a major rant about this, but you can find my past rants on this topic at http://fratching.com/; our sister site which is set aside for just such rantings.

My guess - based on past experience & knowledge of how this often happens - is:
* she doesn't understand the nature of her illness.
* she doesn't understand that her meds are preventative, not curative.
* she takes the meds until she 'feels well', decides that she's 'cured' and 'doesn't need them anymore' and goes off them.
* eventually someone - a doctor, a family member, even she herself - finally gets her back on them.
* she takes the meds until she 'feels well'....

* her children are probably scarred from having been raised by an untreated sick parent, which means they're likely to burn out even faster than other types of family-carer.
* her children are tired of the pattern, and are trying to get Mum to change it; probably by refusing to see her if she's off her meds.


That's just my guess, but it's a pattern I've seen several times over.