my mother has had my father sectioned, but I think she is also ill herself

[oranges]

Can someone help me please? my father was sectioned at the weekend, after weeks of erratic behaviour. He and my mother and been fighting a lot about money. rationally, he was in the right, in that he didnt want to spend on a huge project they couldn't afford, that my mother had her heart set on. But he began acting strangely, but also began begging for people to come and help him as he thought my mum was cracking up.
In the end, the professionals believed her, and he has been sectioned.
But my mother is also acting a bit incoherent, and I am worried that she has turned what is essentially a martial problem into a mental health one, and pinned it on my dad.
i can't tell who too believe or what to do. i can't go visit them for a few weeks, for various reasons but other family have gone over.

I think it is extremely hard to get even an extremely unwell person sectioned so it is unlikely your mother could achieve this out of malice. As to herself, if she's making grandiose plans to spend money she doesn't have, she poses a risk to herself which is an indicator of poor mental health.

Sorry you're going through thisit sounds horribly stressful. Things have to be very bad to be sectioned & I don't think the professionals would do so on the word of your motherthey must have thought your father was very poorly & a danger to either himself or others. Stress can be a big trigger for MI so it's possible that what started out as a marital argument became a case of MI. what makes you think your mum has a problem?

thank you. i don't think it is malice as such on my mothers part, more a bad judgement, she is a mh professional so knows how to deal with the system. She tried several times to get him admitted. He was assessed and sent home about 3 time.s on the 4th, she succeeded. I think my main worry is that she is quite domineering, and has decided in her mind that if my father is defying her, it must be because he is mentally unwell.
But I also worry about her as she is contradicting herself, forgetful, and making things up or lying, depending how you see it. For e.g., she insists the police told her they can drive on b roads but not motorways, when there is no such law. she says her sisters offered her money. they tell me she rang and begged them for loans.
when you say things have to be bad to be sectioned. what do you mean, please? and what will happen now?

It means the legal stuff around sectioning someone is designed to stop people getting inconvenient relatives into an instutution and out of the way. E.g Victorian husbands putting their wife away to.get their inheritance etc. In modern times we have checks and measures in tge system.

Hospital beds are very, very scarce. They dont admit somebody unless they feel they have no choice. The whole system is under massive pressure and there are many complaints of people being discharged before they're well enough as they need to make space. They only section peope if they're considered a danger to themselves or others. What type of section is he under?

he is under section 2. POlice found a note in his car that was an 'in case I die' note that they interpreted as a suicide note. He also wanted to drive to a relative at 3am. A family member refused to hand over the keys and he threatened to assault them.
But after both these incidents, he was taken in and released. The time he was sectioned he had made no such threats.
I think no harm will come to him in hospital, so he is probably in the right place, But I still worry about my mother, and what will happen once he is released.

If you are worried about your Mother's mental state can you get the family members that have gone over to take her to her GP? If she refuses to go and you are concerned you can ring and speak to her GP with your concerns.

2 Drs independent of one another and one a psychiatrist plus an approved mental health practitioner (usually a social worker) need to agree that a person:

Has a mental illness
Of a nature and/ or degree requiring assessment in hospital
And is a risk to their own health or safety or the safety of others
And community treatment is not possible

It's a high bar. A relative can't just get a person sectioned but the 'nearest relative' under the Act which would be the spouse has powers to request an assessment and to discharge a person from hospital.

It's very rare, in my experience, for someone to manage to be detained who is not mentally ill but occasionally it has happened. S2 is for assessment to see if a person is mentally ill.
If he is not then it should become obvious that he behaves normally when away from her.
You can help by ringing/ writing or asking to meet with the psychiatrist in charge of his care and giving your information.

He also has a right to appeal his detention within the 1st 14 days (S2 is for a month) and he will be regularly informed of that right and can get free legal representation. The appeal is to a panel with another independent psychiatrist, a judge and a lay person. Do encourage him to appeal.

Did he have any history of mental illness before this? You can see how the note and the 3am drive looks concerning can't you. Plus after 3 presentations in a short space of time I think most Psychs might be persuaded that something could be wrong that needs investigating.

If he is not unwell I would expect them to figure it out pretty quickly and send him home.

thank you so much. yes he had one similar episode abour 20 years ago. HE was sectioned, but then responded very well to treatment, accepted what happened and seemed ok after that. then my mother was a total rock. this time, less so.