"Mental health assessment and treatment"

My mum in her early seventies who has a prolonged history of severe mental health problems throughout her adult life and has been in and out of services all of her adult life was admitted to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary Wigan  in aug 2018 suffering from a urinary tract infection and in the view of our family exhibiting acute psychosis in the form of hallucinations, hearing whispering voices, calling out the police twice to report imaginary people breaking in, shouting help help down the street at night, paranoia about being recorded in the house, thinking people are going to kill her and her husband.

Admitted to clinical assessment then a generic ageing well ward. Hospital mental health assessed her and said they could find no presenting psychosis. This was chased up several times by myself (I live in Sheffield and am completely blind) and I am their only child. The assessment was done on the ward by people she did not know and she would have been suspicious of and within ear shot of other patients she was hardly likely to disclose her thoughts and feelings. This should have been undertaken in a quiet, confidential setting on a one to with with a psychiatrist and or a CPN who could evidence their credentials to her.

I expressed my concerns and was assured that she would not be discharged without a discharge plan and home treatment in place ( my dad is 80 and not coping very well and has been on the receiving end of aggression from my mum when she is ill in the past) a reassessment was scheduled for the following Monday thus giving time for any confusion related to the UTI to be ruled out. I was assured on many occasions they would keep me informed- I was never ever called back so it was left to me to always chase, call and leave unanswered messages, as I am blind this is hard for me to physically keep doing and very very disheartening , frustrating and quite frankly made me quite ill from the stress of constantly being ignored and struggling to chase up broken promises of being kept in the loop. 

After calling 3 times after being told each time I would be called back, Eventually I spoke to a mental health worker who referred me back to the previous weeks assessment, I said this was not good enough and requested a re assessment that day as they had previously promised. I was alarmed to be told they would ring the ward and ask whether my mum had had any further hallucinations, this is not what should be classed as a reassessment ie a phone call to any random  member of staff onto a generic ward to loosely enquiry if my mum had reported any further hallucinations. I asserted that she would not have been as expertly observed as she would have been on a mental health ward and asked if the referral to home treatment  would go ahead to ensure that my 80 yr old dad, her career has support on her discharge, I was told this would not happen as they had not identified symptoms and that the discharge plan was to refer my mum back to the memory team.

I insisted that they recorded at the unanimous request of our family that we disagreed with the assessment, the outcome and had clearly stated that my mum and dad would both be at risk as she can be aggressive to him when she is ill. The worker without any compassion or sensitivity said she would record it but that they would not refer for any support and if we wanted careers to go in we would need to talk to ward. My mum was at this point kept for other physical conditions/ problems not mental health related. I am at this point extremely worried, stressed and concerned for both my mums unsupported and obvious mental health problems and further more my fathers mental and physical wellbeing. They also refused to refer her onto any community Mental health services.

If we were in 1908 perhaps this would be acceptable however we are now in 2018 and surely as we are always told family and carers should be listened to and helped. I am currently shocked and honestly devastated by the lack or care concern compassion and archaic treatment thus far received in terms of her mental health. The time and energy put into her physical care will all be for nothing if her mental health goes unacknowledged albeit giving her anti psychotic meditation, which for the  first 4 days she was given NO medication at all for both physical and mental health.  

In conclusion it should not be left for myself with my own limitation (blind) to have to continually wear myself out trying to get help, up dates and be left hanging waiting for call backs that are promised but never made received. In short we received a very very poor service and still to come is the aftermath of my mum being discharged back home without any care or home treatment or support for either her or my dad despite the compelling evidence and clinical history of psychosis and mental health history going back many years.