Mum's consultant wants to transfer her from her lovely care home to a psych ward. She says that mum's medical needs are too complex for her to manage in care home setting, but the proposed hospital is a standalone psychiatric hospital with no other medical facilities on-site.
Her stated concerns are:
Weight loss; mum lost a lot of weight last year actually starting during a previous stay in the same psychiatric hospital but this has stabilised over the last couple of months. Family often go to care home at meal times to help mum eat and this is encouraged whereas psych hospital does not allow visiting at meal times.
Pain: mum had serious side effects from Risperidone in Nov and Dec, and although Risperidone has been stopped for Gabapentin in the last three weeks! Still has residual back pain from stooped neck. She also has osteoporosis which may be contributing to pain. Her GPS prescribed a Butrans transdermal patch 5mg last Friday and this can be increased to 10mg in a couple of weeks if mum is still in pain.
Restlessness: mum has been a "walker" for months, constantly on the go. This escalated late last year and she now also has "restless legs" which I think was triggered by the risperidone. She never sits done and sleeps little and as she is a falls risk (gait ok but cornering and steering dodgy) she really needs someone to walk with her. Family are willing to self fund additional one to one for her (in Ireland there doesn't seem to be any State funding for this) and I don't understand why the restlessness of itself requires psych admission.
I and my siblings, who are all very engaged with mum's care, are now divided. I want to resist the proposed move and don't rate the consultant at all. I'm looking to get a second opinion and only want mum to be subjected to another move if it's essential (she's in her third care home and has had two previous hospitalisations last year when she was far more agitated and difficult to manage than she now is). If care home can no longer manage mum, I would like to get long term leave of absence from work to look after her.
Two siblings think we have to follow consultant's recommendation; the other is more sceptical of the consultant and agrees with me that mum should stay where she is, although doesn't feel as strongly as I do.
We have reached a rather confrontational stage and I have told siblings that I will resist mum being "sectioned" into psych hospital. I don't think there are sufficient grounds for it and believe I would succeed in getting her released but of course don't want to damage family relationships by going this route (although may already have by saying tat I am prepared to).
Has anyone been in circumstances like these? Any thoughts or advice would be very welcome.
Her stated concerns are:
Weight loss; mum lost a lot of weight last year actually starting during a previous stay in the same psychiatric hospital but this has stabilised over the last couple of months. Family often go to care home at meal times to help mum eat and this is encouraged whereas psych hospital does not allow visiting at meal times.
Pain: mum had serious side effects from Risperidone in Nov and Dec, and although Risperidone has been stopped for Gabapentin in the last three weeks! Still has residual back pain from stooped neck. She also has osteoporosis which may be contributing to pain. Her GPS prescribed a Butrans transdermal patch 5mg last Friday and this can be increased to 10mg in a couple of weeks if mum is still in pain.
Restlessness: mum has been a "walker" for months, constantly on the go. This escalated late last year and she now also has "restless legs" which I think was triggered by the risperidone. She never sits done and sleeps little and as she is a falls risk (gait ok but cornering and steering dodgy) she really needs someone to walk with her. Family are willing to self fund additional one to one for her (in Ireland there doesn't seem to be any State funding for this) and I don't understand why the restlessness of itself requires psych admission.
I and my siblings, who are all very engaged with mum's care, are now divided. I want to resist the proposed move and don't rate the consultant at all. I'm looking to get a second opinion and only want mum to be subjected to another move if it's essential (she's in her third care home and has had two previous hospitalisations last year when she was far more agitated and difficult to manage than she now is). If care home can no longer manage mum, I would like to get long term leave of absence from work to look after her.
Two siblings think we have to follow consultant's recommendation; the other is more sceptical of the consultant and agrees with me that mum should stay where she is, although doesn't feel as strongly as I do.
We have reached a rather confrontational stage and I have told siblings that I will resist mum being "sectioned" into psych hospital. I don't think there are sufficient grounds for it and believe I would succeed in getting her released but of course don't want to damage family relationships by going this route (although may already have by saying tat I am prepared to).
Has anyone been in circumstances like these? Any thoughts or advice would be very welcome.