Hello My my daughter has been in a facility now for a year. She is stable on Invega sustaina and vraylar 3 mg, and a few others. She was originally supposed to be there for 5-6 months and now were at a year. I really would like to have her come home but she did just start the vraylar about a month ago. So my complaint is she does nothing there really, The said they would help her with cooking and and learning how to live on her own or at least be more self reliant and so far their issue is not enough employees to get this done because of covid. She is supposed to be able to come home when they can get her on an outpatient program. I miss her a lot and some times I’m beginning to wonder, like she does, if its more of them getting paid than what’s best for her. Or am I looking at it the wrong way and this is best for her right now??? She seems to me to be very stable right now. I don’t know what if the right thing is to see how she continues to do in the facility or to try to help her get out, if I can since it was court mandated. Is the best thing to just wait and see, has anyone else been at this point. Its not a bad place her main complaint is boredom.
Hi @tt1 I was wondering, since her main complaint is boredom, is there some sort of interest she has that you could help her by providing resources to support her interest? Drawing with watercolors or even using crayons or colored pencils with coloring books - today’s coloring book options are just beautiful and there is a big market of coloring books aimed at adults.
Can you visit and do a cooking project with her?
Hey there. First of all, congratulations on her remission, we don’t appreciate the peace enough when it gets long enough. I’m really sorry though, that you haven’t had her home for an year, that must hurt a lot.
The boredom she feels is something we are struggling with as well. The APs bring out the negative symptoms, and themselves cause amotivation and anhedonia. The Vraylar should help with that, being a partial dopamine agonist.
@hope gives great advice here. The coloring books are really good, they got my wife into and we’ve taken up an acrylic painting class nearby which has also helped with the social anxiety. Cooking is also something you could collaborate on, it is relaxing and productive. She can look up recipes online and you can bring over the ingredients.
Keep faith. She is getting better. Talk to her nurses about getting her out. If she is med compliant and feeling better in a few weeks, you could try bringing her home.
Thank you both, for your ideas and explanations. I appreciate it. Right now she just does a lot of sleeping because she’s board and plays video games. She actually in the country at a sort of ranch (no animals except for a cat Conchita) best therapist there.
What you wrote made me think of providing some games - back in my day we called them “board games” today the “kids” call them “tabletop” games. There are some really good 2-3 person games out there.
@ttt1
Count yourself as one of the lucky ones to be able to have your daughter somewhere where she is getting consistent medication. How old is she? I would not even think about getting her home UNLESS there is an outpatient program willing to take her and that is set up before she is discharged. Also she must agree to go to the program. I am guessing that you are at the beginning of this life as a parent of a someone with schizophrenia. Take it from me, my brother is now 57.
There were no opportunities for him to be anywhere for ONE YEAR back when he was much younger. Once out of hospitals he refused outpatient programs or group homes. My parents had to deal with 35 years of ups and downs due to his non compliance with meds.
You are LUCKY!
Thank you j9sit, I know I am lucky that she has the care she needs. Being on this forum I have heard how hard it is to get help, when obviously they need it. And in the back of my mind I keep thinking is she really getting better or is this a ploy. To get out of there and stop the meds. She has a roommate that she says obviously she has SZ because she thinks her brain is a computer. But she does not recognize it in herself, I almost want to say and you thought you were a god. But I know when to shut up. I do a lot of that, its keeps the conversation going between us. And I love her so much as we all do are little story tellers. Oh by the way she turned 30 when she was diagnosed same month as her birthday. No real problems before that. About 3 weeks before a really bad episode that put her in the hospital she started saying stuff, I was hoping it would go away LOL how naĂŻve am I? Her great grandma had SZ so I was pretty sure what was going on but hoping wishing and praying it was not.