Psychiatrists

[purchase]

Good morning everyone

I am in one of my can't sleep because of worrying days so I though I would get up have a cup of tea and read through all the posts.

What I wondered was are all your loved ones under psychiatric care. Mom has been in a psychiatric hospital twice during the last year and we were advised during the last stay that the best way forward was to put her into residential care. The lovely home that we chose is close to me and is not anywhere near the area of the hospital so she was discharged from their care. We were told that because mom has AD she will just gradually get worse and there was no need for her to be under psychiatric care. Do you think this is right. I personally think that she needs to see a psychiatrist because I think she is very depressed and maybe a change of medication would lift her mood. Also even though it may sound silly I would like to know how the AD is going as sometimes I wonder if she has it at all or if she is just severly depressed A silly thought I know but I cling to hope.

Your kind advice would be much appreciated.

Jacky

 

[Kathleen]

Good Morning to you too

My mum has had AD for about 5 years and has been seen by psychiatrists for the last 3.

She used to visit him every 3 months when she was at home and for the last year she has been in a home where although she changed GP and is under a different area, she continues to see a psychiatrist every 3 months.

I think, like you, that as they have far more knowledge of AD than the average GP, they are the ones to adjust medication etc along the way to give the best possible mental state our loved ones can have.

We may just be lucky, but so far both the psychiatrists we have dealt with have made it clear that they are on mums side and have so far always been at the end of the phone when needed either by mum or ourselves.

This is especially important at the moment as mum is on the process of coming off galantamine and we don't know what to expect re decline etc.

I hope this helps you

Kathleen
xx

 

[purchase]

Thanks Kathleen

Your advice was very helpful. Unfortunately even though mom's psychiatrisit was very helpful the hospital particularly during her last stay was really really bad. Mom is incontinent of urine, I think because she forgets, and when she realises what has happened she hides her underwear. When she was last in hospital the smell of her was dreadful. This certainly wasn't her fault and even though we brought it up time and time again they did nothing about it. It got to the stage that when we visited mom we found it impossible to go to her room because of the smell and all the hospital did was open all the windows. We are complaining because other patients in the future may not have to suffer this indignity if we do something about it. The excuse they gave us was that that mom insisted that she had washed and changed herself. She has AD. Surely they of all people should know that half the time mom doesn't know what she did ten minutes ago.

Just a footnote mom came off Aricept about six months ago. The psychiatrist said that she would deteriorate rapidly but this hasn't been the case. Hope it's the same for you.

Take care Thinking of your

Jacky

 

[Kathleen]

Hello again

Just popped home for lunch.

Had a thought, why not try getting in touch with her last psychiatrist and asking his advice? He may be able to help particularly as your mum is not reacting to the withdrawal of Aricept as he said she would, that may help further in finding a definite diagnosis for her and put your mind at rest a little.

Got to be worth a try, I think.

Good luck,

Kathleen
xx

 

[Angela]

Hello
My advice would be, if you have not already, to tell the staff at the care home of your concerns/questions and ask them to make contact with the local psychatric team. Particularly, I feel as you have said Mum is placed in a residential home, which may not have a qualified Mental Health nurse. Your next course of action may be to contact them yourself, or at the very least, ask the GP assigned to Mum to refer to the team. This may mean initially a visit by a Community Psychatric Nurse, and thats the way back into the psychatric services.
It does not sound silly to want to know how her illness is progressing from another point of view, and certainly not from a Doctor.
Do contact them.