To struggle to believe this person is being left routinely passing out and unconscious for hours?

They wouldn't have got a social worker without a care act assessment, I imagine.
I feel the issue here is that the person is rejecting support. This may be not letting community OT enter premises to assess for assistive equipment or, as OP alluded to, not turning up for appointments to discuss housing (they may well have been offered to be rehoused somewhere more suitable).
I know cases like that all too well and, with the best will in the world, social and health services can't help because the person is refusing to engage with anything offered. I am working with someone in a desperate situation currently and they refused care act assesment altogether because they they don't want strangers in the house despite not managing basic tasks at all due to complex health needs. I can't force them so my only option is to alert their GP and step away. I can't even complete a safeguarding referral because there is insufficient immediate risk and I don't have their consent to refer.

It is suspicious if these frequent losses of consciousness never happen in public or when with other people and also odd they have no diagnosis for this. Whatever other health problems they have presumably this one could be deadly depending on the cause, one time they may not regain consciousness.

I assume this is a close relative or I would be reducing considerably the amount of help I was willing to give it does sound like you are being used as a dogsbody.

The biggest problem is that if she’s deemed to have mental capacity, she can’t be forced to do anything against her will. If she’s in denial about the help she needs it’s very difficult to arrange any sort of meaningful care or support. My MiL was similar when her mobility was severely reduced. She refused to believe she needed care and expected family to rally round whenever she fell - which was frequently. These things usually end the same way - with a fall or accident requiring hospitalisation and the acceptance that they need support

OP has there been a care assessment at all ? You could actually ask for this yourself if you suspect she’s at risk. The problem with adaptations to help her from day to day is that only the basics are free. If she requires anything more than grab rails and other simple aids etc, then that’s usually via a disabled facilities grant, which is means tested.

Was my thought too. A care assessment seems appropriate, if she would co-operate.

I suggest you look it up. Nothing like fibromyalgia, no. My friend has been diagnosed with it recently after having horrible symptoms for the last few months ending with a seizure, after which she was referred to a neurologist. MRI and CT confirmed the diagnosis, she’s lost her driving licence and her job as a result.

Are they with Adult Social Care in your Local Authority? Sounds like they need a social worker

I can see why you find it incredibly difficult to know!

Because it does seem shocking, if true, that someone would be left by medical professionals to be falling unconscious all over the place. But pps with experience are saying it does happen, and I have no reason to disbelieve them.

But I agree with some others that the bit that she’s being unreasonable about is not accepting work around. Not letting you have a shed key to accept deliveries. Or if you’re as trusted by her and you’d need to be to be asked such big favours as they sound, a house key so that you can get in, take deliveries, do whatever work you were going to do, and maybe check on her!

If she means - I just need to sleep things off at unpredictable times, it would be better to say that than “unconscious”

What is your relationship to this person?

Someone being UNCONSCIOUS for hours would require medical attention.

someone post icital, is different, but someone actually unconscious for hours needs checking every time.

i would like to point out if someone is having an EPILEPTIC fit that goes on for more than 5 mins this is a medical emergency and you can go into status epilipticus,

if they are not epileptic then the 5 min rule remains but isn’t as dangerous to begin with

please never ever ever ever let someone fit for more than 5 mins if epileptic

What exactly can a doctor do? If the person has capacity and agency then it’s broadly irrelevant what a doctor thinks or recommends.

My grandmother was offered a variety of interventions/treatments/support but refused it all, preferring to be dependent on her daughter.

People with cancer refuse life saving treatment. It’s entirely possible there are treatments they have refused. You’re clearly enabling them in some way and perhaps that’s inevitable - impossible to know without understanding the relationship - but if you aren’t willing to stand firm and refuse to put up with the bollocks then nothing will change.

You can be disabled and also not be a great person. Not all disabled people tell the truth about everything.
(I am also a disabled person)

Hi op.

it sounds like there are a few things going on with this person.

it’s not uncommon for people with disabilities (particularly those acquired through illness or injury) to develop anxiety and depression.

I was referred for counselling after my accident and the referral was rejected on the grounds that anyone who wasn’t able to walk following an accident would be anxious and that my anxiety was based in reality and therefore their programme couldn’t help me.

i have made official complaints at a couple of healthcare providers who didn’t make reasonable adjustments when I asked them to and I have had official apologies.

for example I am frequently non verbal in busy environments and in stressful phone calls but my gp surgery had been ringing me and telling me stuff and then putting down that I had consented to stuff when actually I couldn‘t talk. That sort of stuff.

now I’m an intelligent and (generally) articulate person and I put in complaints in those situations because I know the law and I don’t like being treated like shit off a shoe, but it’s easy to imagine how if you are not so experienced and don’t know the law then healthcare just becomes a scary experience where people don’t listen to you and do stuff to you that hurts and you don’t understand.

from the healthcare providers point of view, they just see a non compliant person. It’s incredibly rare that they’ll stop and think about barriers to healthcare and the welfare of the person, you’ll just get pushed down whatever pathway they can think of whether it’s appropriate or not.

as the gp said when I finally saw him “oh my gosh you’re a lot iller than your file suggests!”

no shit. Was it the wheelchair or the non verbal and communicating by typing on a laptop that gave you that impression?

Very difficult to "diagnose and treat", a bit like fibromyalgia then?🤔

Is it dissociative seizures they’re having? Some people can dissociate quite frequently? Do they have a trauma history ?

I had post viral chronic fatigue, I was literally left to rot. I had consultants, but they wasn't interested. I couldn't get to appointments. I was trying to care for my disabled child at the time. A lot of benefits went unclaimed and if it wasn't for family, I don't think I would have survived.
I know someone who has seizures. They do go the equivalent of unconscious. They were given a phone number to try to get an appointment, after the third one. Nothing is being particularly done. This was after a head injury.
I used to do home care. If it wasn't for neighbours or family, a lot of people would life miserable lives, having a level of 'care' that just about keeps them alive.
It's tough when people aren't at a level were they'll allow others to take over, so their life is sorted out, but you want the best for them and could fix things. You've got to decide what you are willing to do and keep reminding yourself that they have autonomy.

I know someone who falls into unconscious, they are still under investigation but in between are able to work.

It seems like this person is very unwell. No reason not to believe them. You don’t have to cast doubt on their whole situation in order for you to choose/justify how much time and effort you invest.

Regarding your involvement, you may need to pull back a bit anyway. It seems like you are pushing beyond their comfort zone/tolerance level and then becoming frustrated.

I can understand both perspectives, but you can only choose your own actions and responses, and can’t change anyone else.

You need to set your own boundaries, especially as you are disabled yourself.

Some observations:

• just because a person is seriously unwell does not mean that they will accept support on other people's terms. Anyone who has ever been sick and has ended up turning down offers of help that seem inappropriate or inconvenient will relate to this. Sometimes people have boundaries that they will protect at almost any cost, and that could be down to their values, or to experiences of past trauma, or to all sorts of things.
• if a person has the mental capacity to make decisions about their care and support, no one can force care and support on them. The same goes for living arrangements and everything else. It is always presumed that a person has mental capacity. The bar for proving they do not is high, and is in any case issue and time-specific. However, what this also implies is that most of us are expected to make our own decisions and deal with the consequences of those decisions. If you are running around after someone to the extent that you protect them from any possible negative consequences of their decisions, they are not likely to start making different decisions.
• as a society, we do not generally accept 'I was too anxious' or 'I was too knackered' or 'I was too depressed' or 'I forgot' as reasons for not turning up to things. These explanations do not tend to attract much compassion, even when compassion is needed. We do however tend to accept 'I was unconscious for a medical reason completely out of my control.' I'm not saying that the person in question is making it up - they could perhaps be entirely honest (and it would maybe make sense for them to pass out at home only if, for example, they are tense and on high alert and full of adrenaline whenever out). But if they are not always being entirely honest, it is easy to see why giving the explanation they are giving will be easier for them and why they might be heavily invested in emphasising their helplessness.
• people can have a very complex relationship with their illnesses. Messages about self-care or accepting practical solutions can lead people to feel blamed and invalidated. Believing entirely that something is beyond your control is easier. This does NOT mean that I think people are to blame for their illnesses or want to be ill. It is just to point out that it is complicated. Illness can become a way of life and a whole identity and anything that seems to threaten that narrative can be very distressing and difficult to consider.

Why does it matter? If you want to support them, do what you can, being clear on your limitations and what you can and can't provide. I wouldn't be telling them they need to take responsibility/provide practical answers etc - that's up to them. If their lack of practical solutions makes you unable to give the support they want, say that. Maybe they're a manipulative liar, maybe they're extremely disabled and receiving inadequate care, maybe both. They're not mutually exclusive. Unless you're legally responsible for them, why get worked up about it?