Is there any way to make someone engage with mental health services and medical treatment?

[NewYearBetterHealth]

VERY complicated situation.
I really don't know what to do.
I have pretty good reason to believe that someone I am close to, but who lives the other side of the country, is both mentally and physically in a bad way, but is refusing to attend appointments or engage at all.

I am totally clueless. Is there anything I can do from my location? If I drove over would there be anything I could do?

Anyone?

It depends on the situation

grinchy please could you give some examples of what could be done? I am rather loathe to go into the whole long saga, but there is a history of addiction, MH issues, suicide threats, and now a serious health diagnosis

Oh and I am told they have discharged themselves both from their mental health services and medical treatment team

It would depend on things like,

Is the person in question a family member?
Are they an adult or a child?
Do they have a learning disability? Do they have capacity? Carers?

In what way do you have good reason to believe this? Are they in contact with you?
It's VERY hard to advise on the info you have given, but unless this person is a danger to themselves or others there is likely not much you can do.

So for example if we are talking about somebody who is over 16, with no learning disabilities, with normal capacity, they would be deemed (I think) fit to decide if they wanted to engage with services or if they wanted to self discharge.

Yes to family and adult. Capacity - um not sure due to the mental health issues. No learning difficulties, no carers. Lives alone.

Assessing capacity is extremely difficult as it is not fixed & can vary even in the same person. Have you discussed your concerns with any of their health professionals? Admittedly due to confidentiality it would be a very one-sided conversation. But this could be a place to start.
Even then, it is important to remember (albeit very hard) that people are allowed to make what are perceived as bad choices

In that case then it's likely that they may have made a choice to not accept help, and they have the right to make that choice for themselves.

In the sense that any adult can choose to accept or decline any form of treatment.

The only way you could "make" somebody get help is if they were sectioned under the mental health act and a danger to themselves or others.

You can support them in the meantime though and report any concerns you have to adult social services

If they have the capacity to make their own decisions then, no, there is nothing you can do. Capacity means they understand the choices they are making, and the likely consequences. People generally don’t lose capacity due to addiction. They might through mental health issues, but not necessarily. There needs to be an assessment of capacity made, a phone call to their local social work department will trigger that, but it is likely that they won’t share the outcome with you, or even confirm that they are doing the assessment.

Is there any agency I can ring to ask for assessment?
If the physical diagnosis is correct then the failure to engage medically would ultimately prove fatal. However I believe the MH issues and addiction are stopping engagement. They discharged from MH prior to the physical diagnosis. I would like their MH reassessed as I think they are now a danger to themselves, but not immediately.

Sorry X posted with lots.
Thanks

Kids calling but will be back later!

You could call adult social services and ask for an assessment but due to GDPR & patient confidentiality, all you can do with any organisation is pass information on about this person, they can't give you any information back.

So if you pass all the information on, and it's either information they already hold or they assess and the person still refuses help, they won't be able to tell you and you might be in the same boat

It’s very hard, in fact I would say it’s impossible to make someone engage when they don’t want to. As a family member all you can do is be as supportive as you can be and keep letting them know that help is available when they are ready for it.

If you think they are a danger to themselves or others you could look into having them sectioned and detained but even that is no guarantee that they will then engage with any treatment offered.

I had some experience of this when DS was mentally ill and kept refusing to engage with doctors/psych teams etc. Eventually, after a lot of false starts and time wasting he decided for himself that he wanted to get well and started to engage at which point he made a quicker than expected recovery, but it was a long time coming and the motivation had to come from him.

It sounds like you are having a really hard time. I wish you and your relative all the best.

I know first hand how hard it is to get anyone to listen regardless of it being a family member (and in my case WITH a diagnosis of Dementia). My father wandered the streets in heavy rain his shirt sleeves and stopped taking any of his medication as he forgot he even had any (lived alone). Even after getting him assessed by a social worker and referred to mental health he had died before I got anywhere. Two very painful and frustrating years and I was in the town end next door. I went back to his (also my doctors) with my concerns and even after witnessing several examples first hand they did nothing and referred him/me nowhere.
The kicker was that after his death the coroner told me that his GP practice (presumably receptionist) told him my Dad was, "a bit naughty not taking his meds". I didn't have the strength to challenge that. I now wish I had of course.

It's very hard to get anything done in my experience but I wish you luck and would say it's worth trying for your own conscience if nothing else.

Thanks again. I will give the local adult social services a call on Monday and see what they say. I don't need feedback or information - if my family member has capacity and refused treatment I have to respect that. I just want someone to check that they are indeed currently capable of making that decision, and do something if they are not!

Thanks again