What's the best way to help someone who is delusional?

[belledechocchipcookie]

The hospital has messed with her medication, she thinks the neighbours are listening in to her conversations, the hospital have stolen her diary etc. GP has been in to see her today and has messed with her medication (again)

Thank you

help her ride it out, until the meds have a chance to settle.

if you are not able to help her keep safe while this goes on, you might want to call her crisis team, or get her to do it (call them i mean). they might be able to make regular contact and assessments.

is she lucid enough to reason with on anything?

She's lucid, she was about to throw my brother out of the house this afternoon (he's 30, not a child). I keep telling her to hold on, write her thoughts down to let them out (the plan was so that she doesn't say them out loud). I don't live there, I can tell when I call her that she's unwell. She's saying that no one believes her though.

if she's talking to you, she must have a bit of belief in you.

have you explained that tomorrow the neighbours may leave her alone, and that the hospital are trying to return the diary?

i know this is probably going along with her delusions, but if you truly believe it's only the change in meds, ie they will help her soon, then it may be very helpful if you can

I suggested that the real diary may still be in the house and the paramedic/my brother may have taken an old one by mistake (as she has many), this didn't really work.

She's never been like this before, I'm fairly sure it's her medication.

Thank you for answering

it may not be her meds.......

she may need intervention

you sound like a fab support

She has a UTI and MRSA so it could also be the infection. This has sort of happened before, just not in the same way as she was far worse. She had a UTI and felt the need to touch the patients with her walking stick incase they died. It's either the meds or the infection. She had her bladder washed out on Saturday (hence the paramedics).

Thank you

morning belle

i wondered how the call went?

thinking of all involved - un-MN {{hugs}}

Thank you.

I called my sister last night, she went to see her yesterday and said she has an infection (a UTI again) and she does have antibiotics. I've just tried to call my mother and she's not answered. She can't leave the house as she can barely walk so I'm concerned now.

She didn't have an infection. She was sectioned this afternoon. Why's life never easy?

I'm not at all surprised. Thank goodness she is now in a safe place as she is clearly suffering from some sort of psychotic illness. I've only just read the thread but you have been describing someone who is out of touch with reality. Really hope she gets the care that she needs - anti-psychotic meds are usually very effective, though of course it will take time.

Thank you. I'm relieved, doesn't make it easy though. I just hope she recovers quickly and doesn't remember this.

sorry she's been so poorly, belle

i've been where you possibly are now, with a family member.

PM me if you want

sorry, have name changed, it's AuntieMonica here

Thank you. I'm OK, my sister's worried because she's catheterised and she doesn't know if they can look after her medically. Do you know if they can do this? She's in a psychiatric unit.

i will PM you

Your sister shouldn't be worrying Belle - it is a hospital and of course they can look after her medically as well as pyschiatrically. I have been an inpatient twice on a psych ward and if necessary patients were taken over to the main hospital for treatment. The psych unit was in the grounds of the hospital, but many are actually in the hospital. I think it is natural for your sister to worry about herself in these circumstances. I was in a older people's ward last time (Easter 10) cus I was 66 and many of the older people had falls and were either dealt with on the ward but if x rays were needed they were taken to the main hospital. One lady fell and broke her hip and of course was taken to main hospital, but amazingly back in a couple of weeks.

Don't forget there are drs on the psych ward who are qualified in all brances of medical as well as psychiatric help.

This is going to be a very worrying time for you - the best thing you can do is support your sister, and try to impress upon her that she will be cared for. She is almost certainly still delusional, so may think all sorts of things that are not connected to reality........the anti psych meds should eventually help.

Mean "qualified in all branches of medicine" - just looked at your earlier post Belle and I don't think people do recall their psychotic episodes, though I am no authority on this. I just remember one lady when I was admitted who was wondering about, trying to take her top off and asking me (and anyone else) if we had sold her bungalow. She got very upset one evening, saying that she didn't have enough money to pay for her bed and no amount of re-assuring did much good to be honest.

However a few days later she was quite normal and I was staggered as I thought she probably had some kind of dementia, but she had depression and it was so severe, she suffered a psychotic episode. We became quite friendly and I did once mention to her how poorly she had been when I came in and mentioned her asking people if they had sold her bungalow. It was very clear she had no recall of this at all and it was upsetting for her to know, so I quickly said that she only said it once to me and I regretted saying anything. Later her daughter talked to me and said her mom had no memory at all of how delusional she had been at home and had no idea that she had been in hospital for 4 months.

Anyway she improved in leaps and bounds - was discharged before me and went off on holiday to Austria! My CPN told me that people don't recall their psychotic episodes.