Schizophrenia seems to have claimed friend: she's homeless and has lost DD. Why can't she be helped?

[Mentallyillfrienhomless]

This is a very old friend I've personally not spoken too in over a decade.
Her df had schizophrenia and now she seems to have succumbed.
She has lost her Dd and she's in foster care.

She is doing a protest by living on the streets, doing a Hunger strike to punish the evil people who have "kidnapped her Dd" she is writing all sorts of absolutely nonsense stuff, paranoid etc.

I can't understand why she can't be sectioned and medicated?
Her dad seemed to have calmed down and sorted his life out with medication.

She has been left to go absolutely AWOL?
Does anyone have knowledge of what can be/ should be done?
She was abroad and moved back here into council housing and seems to have lost that.
Now her dd is foster care and she's on the streets seemingly with no grasp of reality at all.

It all sounds very sad. Are you sure that MH services are even aware of her whereabouts currently to assess her?

It's not necessarily anything to do with how good or bad NHS mental health services are - someone has to meet strict criteria to be detained under the Mental Health Act and if they don't, they cannot be hospitalised or treated against their will (although of course, more resources would mean more opportunity for someone to try to engage your friend...)

Mentallyillfrienhomless You’d think she’d already be at a point where she’d get the help she’d need. In my own experience the bar is impossibly high but in a functioning system
she’d have been given all the support to stay well and look after her daughter. It really is devastating for families and for your friend. She deserved better support. Growing up with a schizophrenic parent myself, care in the community was a massive sham. I used to see massive deteriorations until the inevitable sectioning when things got v bad. Your friend could probably do with in inpatient stay to stabilise. What I would say though is that Chlozopine has been a miracle drug for us- only thing that has ever kept my parent stable and has worked well for many years now.

Are there substance abuse issues along side the mental health ones? I've often seen mental health services putting things down to drug induced psychosis when that is the case, which makes getting help that much harder.

Yes there is a chance drugs are playing a role.

All I can see is that she has been repeatedly asked to do mh assment and all her replies are written well but based in nonsensical stuff.

I think her coming from abroad has complicated things.

I wonder if she's moving around a lot she's evading people and there is no continuity?

@Bunnycat101

I'm also wondering who will have told them she has szchprrnna in family?

Hopefully by now they do know but it seems it's been perhaps two years since being back ,housed in social housing then lost it ...

Yes exactly. The lack of awareness is part of the illness.

I'm so sorry for you and your friend, as others have said our mental health system is appallingly under-resourced.

What can we do though to help her?

Can we trigger something? Write to MPs?

As other people have said OP if she's refusing to work with social services or even admit that she has an illness then there isn't an awful lot that can be done sadly. You could try looking into local homeless charities and warm spaces so she can at least have a safe place to go and people to talk to who might be able to help her.

Idealy, she should contact a GP for a referral to be made to secondary care MH services.
If she is not consenting, that becomes more complicated. You could reach out to a homlessness support agency or a charity like MIND for additional support. There are often charity outreach teams that can keep an eye out.
Anyone can usually refer to the LA drug and alcohol support teams and they have direct links with mental health teams usually.
The childs social worker may be able to raise concerns with the MH team but ultimately if she refuses to attend then they cannot make her.
Hunger strike could potentially result in hospital admission, which is awful but probably going to be the only way to get her seen and assessed.
Just remember everything she says and thinks she genuinely believes and the more she is contradicted, the more she will pull away. If you do speak with her id reccomend just listening and hopefully she will then begin trust you.

Yeah, brilliant idea. Why don't you open your own house up to someone who is delusional and unstable? What could possibly go wrong?

Mumma

If the nature of her illness means she doesn't see this though how can she be relied on. The onus on. Her to get Heself help when she doesn't even know she's I'll!

Good idea About mind

Eliana

As far as I can make out she won't go into an shelter because she's making a stand against the people who are taking her daughter.

As a country, our healthcare system is overstretched, mismanaged and broken. That's why there's no help for your friend. We need to face up to this before it can get better. For most things, there is almost no care. My db was sent home with a multiple displaced fracture, presumably to sit in his own shit and starve. Our healthcare services rely on family/friends stepping in.

@Mumma
. mind is good start thanks I've emailed them to see what advise they can give

Yes I know it's broken etc.

I'm wondering what actual steps should be happening or what we can do.

Sometimes very specific procedures has to happen etx

Her symptoms mean she will need help to trust and engage with services. The local homeless outreach services are usually used to building relationships and understand the mental health system so can advocate for her. Is there anything like that in her area? Sometimes it's a charity, sometimes Local Authority Team. They don't require people to come to an appointment, but often meet and talk on the street/ wherever they are. I really hope there is a team like this that could help her.

the area i work in, people are frequently sectioned (always appropriately, too). There’s never any beds to go into, but that’s a whole other issue.

its tricky - nearest relative can request a mental health act assessment, but it’s normally requested that a professional (such as GP) has reviewed the individual before the request is accepted. Police can detain using their section 136 powers if they feel she is a danger to herself whilst in a public place. That - unfortunately - is how a lot of patients come to my attention. A section 136 must result in a mental health act assessment.

i am sorry to hear about your friend. I hope she gets the help she needs soon.

@Luna42 @OliverBabish

I think she's moving around the UK a fair bit which maybe why it's hard to pin her down.

Is there a national charity's I could alert who maybe able to at least keep a look out for her?

I would call Shelter, as it's a while since I worked in this field, they can advise. There is a charity called Streetlink, and also lots of areas have a No second night out policy, which is designed to get people off the streets quickly. Maybe she should be reported as a missing vulnerable person as her whereabouts are unknown, because when I worked for a homelessness charity the police would send out an alert for us to look for people.