Hi. I am looking for advise about my mum.
2 years ago she was admitted to a psychiatric ward for a month with what the doctors called a single 'psychotic episode' She had no medication and returned home (lives alone after my dad died 8 years ago) after a month. Since then, she has lived independently but I have always had in the back of my mind that all was not well.
Her house is not well kept (kitchen is really not clean) and she has hoarded things since my dad died (clothes, papers) but refuses our offers of help. The house badly needs updating (Central heating 45 years old) but again she will not allow us to get people in (Money no object).
Fast forward to the last 5 months. She has been telling me of hearing arguments between her neighbours, Police helicopters arriving in the night, hearing them talking about her. All these things have been in her imagination but in between these conversations with me, she has seemed generally ok.
She went into a full on 'episode' last week - hearing voices, being paranoid, agressive with me and the doctor I called - and was admitted to the Psychiatric ward again. She has steadily got worse and has now been sectioned under a section 2 (28 days I think).
My questions are:-
How long might she need to be in hospital and take to recover?
Should I address the issues within her home (hoarding, lack of upkeep, dirty) or would this make things worse?
Should I be insisting on Power of Attourney (me or my sister)?
Sorry for the ramble, I just dont know where to start with helping her.