"My sister's care"

In April this year my sister developed a psychosis, she was 59 years old. After some close care from the crisis mental health team she was eventually admitted to in patient psychiatric care in May.

Considering the Covid status both locally and in the hospital, her care and management was very good overall. Whilst in hospital it became apparent that her house was not currently habitable - she is a hoarder and there was no clear sleeping facility and no cooking options. This was identified by the OT who was involved in assessing her. And whilst her psychosis was abating there were further issues becoming apparent i.e. she had some abnormalities on her CT scan of her brain and some clear cognitive impairment.

She has been referred for further assessment by a psychiatrist with expertise in dementia in the young. To my knowledge, the ward staff referred her to social work in July in preparation for her going home. There was a patient who tested positive for Covid that week and so in patients were confined to their room. This not being ideal conditions for people recovering from psychiatric disorders, I was asked if I could accommodate her once she had completed her period of self isolation. I agreed to this for a period of 4 weeks reckoning that this would be enough time for social work to get in touch regarding her flat and for the further referral to investigate her cognitive impairment. 

That discharge was 4 weeks ago. Since that time both the crisis team and the discharge team have been in regular touch to ask about her mood and mental state, both of which are good but there has been no contact from anywhere else. 

I have spent the last 6 weeks mostly by myself trying to make progress with emptying her flat and I am exhausted. She is staying with me and my husband and daughter, and we are doing our best to accommodate her but we need help. I have tried emailing the local dementia resource centre, but got no response. She is so clearly impaired but I have no way of helping her to progress towards getting home without help. The help required cannot be identified until she has a full assessment. 

So having had good emergency care for her organic psychosis, she is now not getting the support and assessment she needs to allow her to live as full a life as she can. And I have no indication of when we can expect to hear anything.