Sandy reading your post broke my heart. I know what it’s like when our loved one have to be evaluated and professionals fail us. My son was in the hospital 3 times on the 3rd time , the doctor finally diagnosed my son with sz. My son is 28 , he started getting sick at the age of 25. It has not been easy, actually it was a nightmare before he was stable. Things are quiet here so far. But I get a knot in my stomach , waiting for the day when my son will hear voices , get phychosis and delusions and is back to insanity. I take it one day at a time, that’s all I can do. He is quiet but he has no life. I started him on Haldol and it seems to be working we shall see. My son is on Klonopin as well ( it’s a tranquilizer), he takes neurontin, celexa, Haldol , lamictal.
Prayers for you , your son and all of us here.
Annie, this HIPAA law MUST get re-vamped to accommodate families like ours. It is ridiculous and unconscionable that our families cannot get information about our MENTALLY ILL adult children. How convenient for the mental health care providers though - when families cannot access information it makes it A LOT easier for there to NOT be a system of ‘checks & balances’, so to speak…makes it a lot easier for mental health providers to slack on the job with no family members able to double check to ensure their loved one is indeed being properly looked after. It’s a classic case of THE FAT KID GUARDING THE PIE, because in the case of our mentally ill adult children, HIPAA doesn’t actually “protect” our family members, it shuts THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO TRULY CARE about these mentally ill patients OUT of the mental health care process. I’m honestly shocked and disgusted that this has been allowed to continue as long as it has. Whoever created this law should be forced to endure what our families have had to endure! Just the other day in a city close to our town, a 27 yr old resident of a “recovery residence” (like the kind of home my own son now resides in), was found dead, he’d been laying there decomposing for 39 days!!! His family had tried contacting him during that time & all they got were LIES! Need I say more? ! I’m sorry but when it is a undeniable fact that someone is mentally ill, the so-called civil liberties that they are entitled to through HIPAA do not protect them, it harms them. They’re living life on a completely different level with their mental illness and they need to have their families involved in their care in order to have the best chance of avoiding rehospitalization or jail. Here is a link to that article in the news: Undiscovered for 39 days: State probes recovery center death