DM about to dangerously discharge

It can be very slow but you will get there. This information may be helpful for you, I would definately apply for deputyship if you can. I imagine she will be allocated a mental health social worker and depending on what Section she is under there is also discharge planning advice and support.
www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/rights-restrictions/mental-health-laws/mental-capacity-and-mental-illness/
www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/leaving-hospital/overview/

Dorset just wanted to say how sorry I am that you have been pulled every which way while trying to get care for your mum. I hope she gets the help she needs 💐 Look after yourself. X

Ratios of staff to patients was best ever in MH unit compared to everywhere my DM has been. Staff very appreciative of a thorough list of what she particularly liked for breakfast etc and how she wore her clothes, how often wire spectacles etc. She was even allowed her own duvet covers etc but might be one step too far in Covid times. We drew up a family tree diagram on PowerPoint with names and photos so staff could get to know her family situation. A bit extra but it helped to explain the ‘names’ when we weren’t around. Once she goes in take full advantage of some rest

If she has had psychiatric issues for a while, I can see how being out of her “safe zone” might have triggered her, the poor thing. You no doubt feel utterly terrible, but you really are doing the right thing for her physically and mentally. And for yourself, as you know she will be physically safe and her diabetes monitored, maybe her obesity slowly dealt with (it may also be symptomatic of her MH problems) and her hygiene needs attended to in a safe manner.

@DorsetCamping love, sectioning really, really helps.

Thank goodness she can now get the care and treatment she needs. I hope she settles and you are ok.

So glad things are finally moving for her.

Progress but sadness all round.

They could at least sedate her while she's in the general ward. Awful for the other patients too.

My Gran had stopped eating and drinking as well. I think some people had written it off as dementia, especially as she was in so many wards and so many people. But we knew it wasn't that (or certainly not all that). I think the hospital environment can really trigger some elderly people and unfortunately some people can just write it off as 'old people illness'. I can't remember how long it took for Gran to get into the MH hospital, I just know it was a really hard and horrible time, especially for my Mum as both her brothers lived abroad and I lived 3 hours away as well. I think the GP from the rehab unit who coincidentally was a GP from our own practice who had taken care of my Grandparents many times in the past really advocated for us, he knew Gran needed moved. We had a social worker assigned to us as well who I seem to remember understood our perspective. We had to be pretty firm and ask for meetings and state very clearly.

So my Gran is now no longer alive but this situation is eerily similar. In the December my Gran had a bad fall at home. She was taken into hospital and discharged late at night despite being quite distressed. Over the next few days it became very apparent she was not well, immobile and in a huge amount of pain in her arm where she had fallen. She had a bad break. However in hospital she developed a UTI, was constipated and just generally deteriorated. They moved her to a rehab unit and in there she became increasingly (over a very short space of time) very confused, agitated, low mood. She started pulling at all her buttons, trying to hurt herself with a knife, scissors etc. The GP diagnosed an acute agitated depression. She was transferred to a MH unit where she did improve. They then discharged her back to the rehab unit, but it was too soon and this time she was in a section with patients with acute dementia and she began mimicking the behaviours and began to decline again. Whilst she was there her eldest son passed away very suddenly and that brought about a sharp change back to the sever agitated depression. She was transferred back to the MH hospital, this time she was in a different ward and recieved 3 lots of ECT treatment over the course of a year. It did help and she even endured the death of Papa in this time reasonably well but she was physically very incapable by the time she was stable enough to be discharged, especially as her mental health had stopped her from doing any physio with the broken arm, so it was pretty useless. So she went to a care home with a special unit, nearly 2 years after her initial fall. She had up days and down days but the care home was a safe environment for her. She was well enough for us to take out sometimes and we even hired a carer to take her away for a few days to the location she was originally from. Which when she initially spiralled seemed impossible. She was content when she died which was peaceful. The mental health hospital which was a scary prospect to begin with was so much better for her, and actually a nicer place to visit as well. The care home wasn't a beautiful one but was a homely safe place. Agitated depression can appear like severe dementia, I hope your mum improves though as my Gran did.

@DorsetCamping no, not really. She is refusing to do the Addenbrookes test, they have tried twice but she gets half way through and won't go on. She is getting worse while she is in there, total confusion most of the time. I don't think it is the right place for her but at least she is safe until they can move her to a suitable care home. No idea when that will be though, still no news re social worker.

One thing about the MH unit is although the care is great, medical care all has to be referred back to the main hospital i.e her catheter is still in and they don't seem to be in any hurry to remove it and find out the cause of the urine retention. She has had to be taken to A&E twice due to very low blood pressure which is unsettling. I just want to get moving with a proper diagnosis. The last think I want is for her to be stuck for month on this ward.

I'm glad you are finally getting somewhere, I hope they can move her to the MH ward or unit where at least she will have her own room and some privacy to rest.

This is pretty basic stuff, but have they checked her urine? Elderly people can have psychotic episodes as the result of UTI’s. Also allergic reactions to medications. (Antibiotics? Other new meds?) I’d be asking for a referral to a General Physician who specializes in Geriatric health if you don’t get some very fast answers.