My daughter has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia and has now been in hospital for nearly two years. She takes seven different drugs one of which is an anti-depressant. One of these drugs caused a toxic reaction during which she nearly lost her life. She has had ECT on several occasions, this time she has just finished 8 sessions, appeared better for a while then seems very depressed again only a few weeks later. She has a ten year old son, they live alone, in a top floor flat normally, her son is being care for by family at present, the hospital are looking for a discharge in January but this seems unlikely. She has applied for PIP payment when discharged, encouraged and supported by the hospital but has been told that she has to wait 28 weeks for an interview!! She is always being hounded by the benefits office to work and I feel the anxiety of this has helped bring on her present attack.
Hi Beryl~
What is PIP?
2 years is a long time to be in the hospital!
I think you are right about not forcing her to work if she is unable.
Is there family she can stay with when she comes out?
Also wondering why she is having so much done-7 different medications plus ECT?
She will need a lot of help adjusting to life after being taken care of in the hospital
There is help! Are you in the US?
This site has loads of info. You and your daughter can get into a support group, NAMI in the US.
Come back often.
Wishing you luck
Many thanks for your support I am in England, my daughter lives in Hampshire.
PIP, stands for Personal Independence Payment, the hospital applied for this social payment to give her financial help to cope with her illness. They found that the allowances paid to her by the Government were inadequate. But as I mentioned the Government has a long waiting list just for the interview which she is dreading ( she has in the past already had an official interview) for a basic benefit which they were questioning if she was in fact unwell, she has
since been officially diagnosed after anxiety set off an episode of Cataleptic
Schizophrenia for which she had to be hospitalised. She no longer lives at home and has a flat, in fact 250 miles from me with her young son and does not want to come home.
We don’t seem to have much say in her medication, she has already had one
toxic reaction to a drug the hospital gave her and this caused an emergency.
http://www.thinkingahead.org.uk/
This may interest you as a carer.
Carers Cafe
There is a Saturday Carers Café at the Carers Centre in Orchard Road, Southsea, it runs from 10 am until 2 pm and is for those carers who cannot attend groups at other times during the week. Staff are available to offer help and support along with Tea/Coffee and a chat.
N.B. Did you know that there are over 4500 adult carers registered at Portsmouth Carers Centre and that 29 carers groups use the carers Centre on a regular basis!
[POSTED 5TH AUGUST 2014]
I guess since she is of age, she has control over her meds, etc…
All you can do is support her the best way you can–as long as she is helping herself.
Barbie gave out some excellent resources. It really helps to get some support–
Hope you have a good holiday OO**
Many thanks, I am afraid my daughter has had a terribly low Christmas and took herself back into hospital this morning. They have given her something to calm her down and speaking to her tonight she does not know when she feels she will be able to leave again. The staff were very good and told her that Christmas is not a good time for a lot of people and often brings on a crisis.
Her partner who does not live with her full time ( he lives with his widowed mother, part of the problem I think), has told her that he does not know if he can cope much longer with her like this.
Hi , how old is you daughter? As someone that has seen a good deal of recovery , there are 2 parts to my recovery , the first for me personally is undoubtably meds , after years of non compliance , it was becoming glaringly obvious , that i would never see any meaningful recovery unless i treated the biochemical problem. The second part of my recovery was cognitive , thinking possitively , finding something i like an enjoy , developing a thick skin , enjoying myself where and when i can , communicating effectively and overall increasing my stress tolerance. So if your daughter remains highly medicated she may never get a chance to build effective coping skills. I generally just take the bear amount of meds that keeps me sane , and i spend the rest of my time trying to feed my needs and well , just tryn to make myself happy. Philosophically speaking , im firmly in the camp of taking good care of myself first and foremost and naturally , im then ,generally, a better kinder individual