L has just completely flipped at his brother, saying he’s stolen toys out of his room, he’s attacked me, thrown stuff and me, punched me, threatened me and his brother.
CAMHS don’t work weekends, crisis team are as helpful as a chocolate teapot, children’s ward won’t take him anymore, and we still haven’t heard from the LD CAMHS unit whether they will take him.
I’ve managed to get lorazepam into him, but he keeps storming back downstairs to start again. We are all scared.
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I’m so sorry. If you don’t feel comfortable calling the police could you go to a friend or family members house? You need to be safe. This is the first thing to consider.
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I can’t leave him, he’s a child. 
I hope things have calmed down for you now. Great advice about police to show them it is unacceptable. I know how hard it is when they ask what do you want us to do. Would they be able to get a bed quicker if the police brought him in. Yesterday was very hard her with threats, physical stuff and to top it off, he got up after we had gone to bed and started cooking on the stove. Set the fire alarm off twice last night. He finally settled at 3:00 am. I pray this isn’t habitual. My son thinks he is a chemist and I assume he was experimenting with something. It is the weirdest disease I have ever encountered. Praying for safety for all of our families.
Try to have a plan in place so that it is automatic.
Hello Letyian,
My 45 year old daughter is currently in her disease She doesn’'t takd any medications and when she gets them she is non compliant. She lives with her boyfriend of 22 years and I’m just besides myself with what actions I can take to help. She hangs up on us and won’t let me in the house when I go to her door. I am thinking of calling her psychiatrist tomorrow. I don’t know if he will speak with me. Her Father went over to see her the other day and she booked it out of a window and ran. She is so sick with the disease. Any suggestions?
Cathy
Thanks for your replies
I hovered around him till he moved away from his brothers, then after a couple of hours I managed to give him lorazepam which actually seemed to work today. He slept for 4 hours then woke up still a bit edgy and twitchy.
I managed to talk him into some mummy time and took him for a macdonalds for his tea and a drive around for an hour while his brothers made themselves some food and had a break from being on edge.
He really hurt my back when he kicked off earlier though. I’ve taken the strongest painkillers I have for my fibromyalgia, haven’t touched the pain.
I should know if he’s going into the hospital he was assessed at by the end of the day tomorrow.
@Cathyhart777
I’m so sorry to hear you are having such difficulty. I’m sorry I can’t suggest anything, as my son is still a child, so he can’t run off or refuse entry as he’s at home with me.
I hope you get some support soon.
@Mom2
Having the police involved won’t make any difference. This is the procedure for admitting a child with an autistic spectrum disorder and/or learning difficulty as a psychiatric inpatient.
I’ve asked how it can be sped up and was greeted with “this is an urgent case, standard admissions take months.”
Can you call the ReThink Support group for help? Not sure if they are much help in these types of situations:
Emergency mental health clinics or departments of hospitals?
@SzAdmin
Thanks, I have called rethink before, and they book a professional to call back within 24 hours. But the professionals are not LD trained, so any of the advice they give is not appropriate for a child with a learning difficulty.
Children’s ward don’t take psychiatric patients after they turn 16, adult wards don’t take patients under 18.
Crisis team advise to take him to a&e. Medical responsibility remains with CAMHS so they won’t give medical assistance, send anyone out, or refer to the home treatment team so see him.
CAMHS only work 9-5 mon-fri, there is no duty medic outside of these hours. L’s psychiatrist is a long term locum who only works at his CAMHS on Tuesday’s. If I call in working hours, all they do is email her and ask her to call me which can take days.
All the psychiatrists at CAMHS seem to have different ideas about crisis management. One says “sit with him and stroke his neck and watch tv”, another says “sedate him with lorazepam every day till his psychiatrist is back”. Another says “let him work though the hallucination till he comes out of it on his own”. They are excellent doctors in their field with children who have learning difficulties, but have no idea what to do with a schizophrenic patient.
It really is that bad. I’ve discovered a gap in services that I didn’t think was possible. If I’m lucky, I catch an ambulance crew who are good and help me to calm him. If not, they treat me like I’m wasting their time and take us to the a&e waiting room and leave us there without a word.
I know what you’re going thru. My son is an adult schizophrenic w/o insurance. We’ve sat for 8 hrs @ mental hospital waiting for admittance cuz voices were telling him to harm people and told there were no beds, try somewhere else. Other clinics have said, they’re not accepting new patients, etc. I’ve looked on websites for help and called numbers that have been disconnected, etc. But all we can do is keep trying plus support each other thru this forum. I hope you find help for your child.
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Letyian, I hope you have had a positive change. Praying for some rest for all of you.
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@Mom2
Hi, and thanks for thinking of us. L is going into hospital this morning. I’ve been told to expect at least 6 months before he’s well enough to come home.
We had a pretty bad week so far, but I think some of that is anxiety about going in.
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