if you are worried about a person's mental health, is there anything you can do?

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[EllieChocolateOrange]

Glad you asked this. I can't answer, but in a similar position. Close friend, worried about her, worried about her kids if she cracks up...hope this bumps you up for an answer.

[Hattie05]

Yes you can refer her to social services mental health dept. You can talk to her GP in confidence and ask advice. you can also get support from a carers support group see www.carers.org

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[foxinsocks]

I think you can phone the GP and say you are worried. There are mental health teams that work in the community but I imagine you need to access them through the GP.

If they have young children, you could ask a HV to visit I suppose?

There are one or two mental health nurses (edie123 is one) who are on here who will have a better idea.

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[Hattie05]

Yes, you can go to her GP as its to discuss her (one of his patients). Obviously the GP cannot divulge any info to you, he can only listen, but he can advise you on what more you can do to help. And some 'nice' GP's will make up a reason to call a patient in for general exam of some kind, giving the patient an opportunity to talk if they wish.

[tigermoth]

Contact the children's school or nursery and voice your concerns. If you feel concerned, the chances are that the teachers/nursery workers do, too.

I had a friend who worried me like this. I was worried for her children.

I managed to contact her sister, but she had already visited my friend and got treatment underway - not a moment too soon.

Any chance of contacting her family?

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[EllieChocolateOrange]

In my case, she has just moved away. No idea of GP and she may think it VERY strange if I ask! I know if HV visited she would appear 'fine' as she is very good at that, but has history of depression and suicide attempts and is under immense pressure at the moment. Maybe I should just arrange some together to have a good chat, and suggest she talks to GP. Would your friend go ape at that Yorkiegirl?

[Pixiefish]

Any other immediate family to her who could talk to you

[essbee]

Message withdrawn

[VeniVidiVickiQVatChristmas]

Yorkie - is this your SIL, sweet?

[SNOWBall4girlz]

my friend has had a break down and is on medication that leaves her with no short term memory at all, to the point that she does not know who her daughter is or her husband's name.
She comes to a local playgroup with a friend who helps her out but was so disorientatd the other day that I asked the leader who /what any body can do. She phoned her health vistor but said that was all we could do.
I would be interested to know if there are other health proffessionals that I am allowed to contact I honestly believe she is over medicated and am worried about her.

[essbee]

Message withdrawn

[foxinsocks]

You can call their doctor but, as Hattie/esbee said, the doctor can listen to you but not tell you anything.

[Nemoinapeartree]

hi Yg if you know the area she lives in you can contact her local community mental health team and voice your concerns if they wont see her they will point you in the right direction. You can remain anonymous doing that or even contact the samaritans etc. Does she have a history of Mental health issues?

[SNOWBall4girlz]

thankyou her GP is the same as mine will call in tomorrow.
She has no close family and has tried suicide twice but we thought she was on the mend.
Yorkie if you can get in touch with the GP in question hopefully she should get help before it gets as serious as my friend.

[tigermoth]

If family are around, agree that they should come first.

I thought about contacting the school when I was worried about my friend, but just couldn't do it in the end. It seemed such a betrayal. However if no family can help and you are really at your wits end, it might be a possibility. I was advised to do this by local social services.

When I phoned the local social services department in my friend's case and they told me I could talk to them anonymously about my friend and they would follow it up. But in the end,I just couldn't do it, so kept in close contact with my friend on the phone, and also phoned her sister (who was more aware than me of the problems). She drove down to see her and things got sorted from there. It was lucky there was family prepared to help and not stand by.

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[essbee]

Message withdrawn

[Quootiepie]

ummm.... Im not sure, but can you get in contact with the local mental health team?

[robinpud]

Awful situation yorkie.
If she has any interaction already with mental health teams then you can ring and mention your concerns to them.
If you genuinely think she has suicidal thoughts then the Samaritans used to actually phone people and try and talk to them, so you could phone the Sams and explain their situation and see if they still do that. (I am drawing on old experience)

Take a moment to take care of yourself in all of this won't you?

[nutcracker]

I spoke to my health visitor about my neighbours mental health and was told that all I could do was contact SS, especially as she had a 9 yr old dd at home.

I didn't contact them as in the end her elder daughters realised things weren't right and took over from there.

[Tortington]

they will see her - if she lets them in. if she says she is ok. they will go away unless shes clearly a fruitloop.

did this whole thing with my mother - who thinks people listen to her through electronic devices!!! ohyeah. fruit.

anyway turns out her tinitus was driving her insane. but it was nothing the community mental health team, her doctor, her daughter ( me) did.

the system is a ball of shit

[Quootiepie]

doing my own bit of hunting down about our local mental heath stuff, ive found it you mainly get help via SS - so try them xxx