In my area, the only way to get long term admission to a state hospital is thru the legal system. Otherwise, the alternatives are private mental health hospitals, which are not typically prepared for long term stays. They will generally stabilize and discharge to community services, which many of our family members will not make use of.
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@Queen1 - What state are you in? I’m in CO we have a state hospital in Denver and Pueblo. IF beds are available.
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I think that is the only way he’s going to a state hospital. I have a petition for a judge to read as soon as I receive a letter from a doctor. He has no doctor. The only people that have seen him are in hospital doctors from behavior heath. And they don’t talk to people. So he has a court date on Aug. 5th. I hope I can get more answers then. Thank you so much for reading my article. Thanks for helping.
I live in Indiana, but it’s close to the Illinois line. Closest mental hospital is Indianapolis. Which is 3 hours away.
Is he competent to go to court? If not, you could write the court a letter with the details. Here (CO) they would then put him in jail to wait for a competency eval to be done - which is in the State Hospital. The wait in jail could be a few months and waiting for the eval can be months (even years I hear). So it’s not ideal. They threatened to do that to my son and in your case that may work for you. We did not want that for our son (not violent) so we managed to get a competency eval privately ($1,000).
This is good to know as sometimes there are others (on the forum) near you and can give you there experience in your state.
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Three hours away and getting the help he needs is better than being at home and living a continued nightmare (you and him). The hard road can be the best road.
Also, keep in mind that a guardianship does not mean you can make a person take meds.
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Thank you so much. I appreciate your feedback. You have been so helpful.
Hi, I live in Indiana also, close to Illinois border. My son is seen by Dr’s at Regional mental health. He does take his Meds, does it make him a rational adult. No, but at least he’s not violent. My sister suffers fro. Debilitating Depression. She has been in Epsworth mental hospital twice . It’s in South Bend Indiana. There is long term care there also.Her Dr. t Regional told her to go there because they do Shock and Ketamine treatment. It is the only trt that brings her out of her deep depression. Hopefully this helps, the Hospital in South Bend is maybe A little over an hour. I will be taking her there this Tuesday.
I went to regional health with my son to see a doctor there. He refuses to see my son because of his anger. The doctor thinks my son might go after him. The doctor told us he will not be able to see him anymore. We never went back. So I don’t know what to do. He refuses to take meds or see a doctor. Thanks for your help.
This is just appalling as far as our health care system goes. A mental health doctor should know how to deal with this. If your son is willing to go, try another doctor! If I read the notes correctly, you are just trying to get a professional medical statement that you can use for the Court!! Call your state NAMI (get connected to a local NAMI group if possible) and see if they can offer advice.
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@Queen1 How are things going? What happened at his Aug. 5 court date? You are cared about!
I think the NAMI form you refer to “AB1424” is just for California? But great idea! You can create your own Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Having such a document to give to a mental health facility and then to a mental health court is the primary reason I was able to keep our son detained for at least a period of time after he had been wandering for 3 months in another state living out of a car.
I went to court. My son did not go, he said that he doesn’t have court. The public defender said he never had a case like this one. They are putting a warrant out for his arrest. Public defender wants him in court, and then he wants my son to go to jail and be interviewed by a professional psch. If they find him incapable they will put him in a hospital. My husband called 911 last week because our son pushed him. Five squad cars came and a ambulance. The police would not take him to the hospital because they told me that is kidnapping. I never heard such a thing. The police looked for the warrant, and there is none. I don’t know what the hell is going on. I even called Adult protection services and they said they couldn’t help me. I need to get a guardianship. Who has money for a lawyer. I am so upset over this. I am just trying to get my son some help. I have tried everything. What else is there to do? Wait and see what happens. It might be too late then. He needs help now.
I can see why this is terribly frustrating! Can you contact the public defender to get an update on status of arrest warrant? If you son is a danger to you or others, or to himself, I don’t see how the police cannot take him, although they would not consider “pushing” a danger. Do you have a document that lists his entire history? You have described some very alarming behavior. But the police won’t know this. You can call ahead to the police and ask if they have a trained CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) unit that they can send out. When you call 911, always ask for a CIT or mobile assessment unit. Again, have his history documented where you can hand it in writing to the CIT or mobile assessment people. You should also give this document to the hospital every time he ends up there.
I’m not sure how much having a guardianship would help with this, although it can help with other aspects of caring for someone with SMI. For example, you cannot force a person to take meds just because you have guardianship. You can, however, have control over where the person lives (presuming you can find him or have him picked up and presuming you can convince him or use leverage to convince him to stay where you want him). You can apply for a guardianship without using a lawyer but I presume using a lawyer would be better able to give you good advice and increase chances of it being awarded. You have to prove that your person is not capable to care for himself or to manage his own affairs. A judge has to approve it and they do not take this lightly.
For other resources, did you contact your state’s NAMI office? Or can you attend a NAMI support group?
When the police came out, I asked if they have a CIT officer and they said no. How can a county Police not have a CIT officer? They have been out to my house several times before, and they all know my son pretty well. The reason he has court dates is because he went across the street to our neighbors house and was banging on their windows for no apparent reason. The neighbors press charges for trespassing. My son pushed my husband down to the ground. Police arrived and my son was yelling at the police to get out of his room. He told me the same thing that day along with he hates my guts.I talked to NAMI already. They are the ones who said to call police. My son isn’t talking to me anymore. He is constantly pacing the house, looking out the windows, and opening and closing the front door. He stands in the driveway and gave the neighbor the finger. This is going on all day long.I make dinner he takes a couple of bites and gives the rest to the dog. He won’t watch TV because of the lights on the dish TV box come on. He thinks people are watching him through the satellite. He is constantly talking about the president. He also said that he is having surgery for a new kidney and liver in October. I watch this stuff day after day. It’s breaking my heart. Why can’t I get him the help he needs. Is that so bad. He was in a state hospital in Chicago, but they let him go, because they needed the bed, and also attacked the doctor there. I have all the stuff he has done in the past written down, along with papers with his discharge. I have proof, but nobody can do anything. I am very depressed over this whole thing. I even quit work to watch him 24/7. I am at my wit’s end. I hope there is someone out there that will take time to help me and my son. I have no support from family or friends. They all stay away. I can’t even see my grandkids. It really hurts really bad.
This is such a hard place to be. I know it is hard, but don’t give up hope. Take care of yourself. I know you said you talked to NAMI but is there a local support group you can attend? I find the best support from others who are in this journey also. Unfortunately, not every location has CIT personnel. NAMI is one organization that advocates for and provides CIT classes to police departments and other organizations so that they can be better prepared for situations like this. Unfortunately, unless your son is taking medication, this will probably not get better. You cannot make him take meds, even with a guardianship. If he commits a crime or is shown to be of danger to himself (“imminent danger” in some places), he can be given meds against his will, but that won’t continue forever unless he is under a court order to take medication. And that will have a timeframe, as well. So it can be helpful to learn some strategy to try to convince him to take medication for reasons that HE wants, not because he is sick. Look online at LEAPInstitute.org and the book “I Am Not Sick; I Don’t Need Help”. That is a start. If you want to look at guardianship, I will private message you some info. Here is one link for now: This one explains the criteria necessary for obtaining a guardianship (not state specific):
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Queen1,
can you at least contact a lawyer to get an advise and he may be able to give a reduced fee or wait until your son starts getting SSI income and then you can start paying him. I believe there a free legal help in your area for someone with low income.
Lawyer can file for emergency court order within a day and with enough documentation the judge will sign the order to take his rights away and get him hospitalized. Then when he is in hospital you can start on Guardianship. with Guardianship, you may not force him on medicine when he comes back home but you can call 911 and ask them to take to hospital during crisis time.
When you are to get him to hospital, you should supply all documentation about your son’s episode( discharge from prior hospitalization and violence toward neighbors ) to the doctor and social worker so they can keep him longer and the doctor may request for him to be Conserved.
Conserving means assigning him a Public guardian to take care of all his needs his health/medical needs and his housing and Medicaid/medicare will pays for all his expense.
if you do not have the conservator ship option in your city then the Guardianship route will help you to control him and make decisions for him in terms of health/medicine, a place to stay, applying for him for get social security, etc… you will be his representative.
As a Guardian to your son, you will be acting like a public guardian, means more responsibility on you shoulder.
I would a free legal consultation first.
Good luck. Praying for you
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Start first with a free legal consultation as soon as possible and let see what they tell you.
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And you should be able to have an initial consult with an attorney over the phone (at no charge).