this shit IS bananas

Meanwhile, back at the cuckoo's nest...

The brother is still quite unwell.  However, the insurance company is itching to expel him into the world, regardless of suicidal tendencies and "whatnot."

Because, while there are people working on his case trying to find a bed in a facility for more stable people, which is the next step,"they" can't refer him until he is discharged from the asylum place. 

So, in other words, there's a big ridiculous gap in treatment. He will leave a place of intense supervision and medical treatment, and will be free to be however he wants to be, until a week or so goes by and all the paperwork is signed for him to go to the next facility.

And where does he go during the gap?  He has the option of staying with my family, where he must be constantly supervised and directed.  And if he doesn't want to go to another place, he has the choice to do whatever he wants.  Imagine the people who are totally alone, who have worn out their family's welcome, where do they end up?

At the same time, the caseworker for the past year or so is resigning from her agency because, in her tearful words, she feels "overwhelmed and ineffective" at her job.  And she was a really good one, too.  Bummer.

It defies logic.  And I can't imagine how this clusterfuck costs less for the insurance industry and society than a holistic and continuous care approach.  Each time, each place, each stage, you have to start over. 

When people say to me, "Yeah, but hasn't your family been through this before, if he's been sick for 25 years?  Don't they know what to expect?" 

I say, yeah, but, each time it becomes much worse and there are always surprises.  It will never get better.  It's a physical, degenerative health problem.   Imagine diabetes going untreated, or having constant interruptions in treatment, despite what the patient demands.  It would kill the diabetic.

Would we tolerate that? 

During these phases I'm so scared for my lovely parents because I imagine the worse case scenario:  the crazy adult son who lives with his parents and one day commits the horrific murder-suicide that will be a huge headline for two days and make the public say "They were such nice people.  But he was crazy.  Too bad."   

I'm not as far off-base as you might think given the stormy past. 

The cycle of mental freak-outs causes me to bust out the xanax and pray to Saint Patty. 

Comments

[Rob]

UGH!!!!....Well, there is a always a partial hospitalization program. At least there they can assist in getting him into a residential progra. I would suggest that they contact the crisis residency programs that both Lehigh and Northampton County have. Call me and I can fill you in on some options.

[blaugra]

The good news this week is that the doctors have maneuvered a bit to delay his release from the "cuckoo's nest" place and that gave my 'rents a chance to get him locked into a partial hospitalization program. Which I don't understand, because, in the evenings, when he doesn't have structure, that's when he's gonna keep going nuts and run from the "people" who are following him chasing him down.