I made the journey over to visit Daughter this evening. It's always disturbing to visit-- I have to go through a metal detector and many locked doors to get to her. She was pleased to see me. Her blood sugars are now in line-- they figured things out. She's drinking lots of water now, because apparently she was a little bit dehydrated at the ER yesterday. She's always a little dehydrated, because she doesn't like to drink anything.
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She says the voices have stopped-- that they're scared. She still has only a tenuous grasp on reality. Tuesday she couldn't break up with Flasher. Tonight she told me she broke up with him on Tuesday. I pointed out the contradiction. She didn't have an answer. I said I wasn't sure she knew what was real. "That's the problem!" She seemed to think I was really slow for just figuring that out.
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Psychiatrist came in while I was there, and ordered another increase in the trileptal, which will put her up to the mid range of effectiveness. Psychiatrist sees Flasher as a predator, and wants him reported to adult protective services. She also sees Daughter as too child like to make her own decisions-- she'll always be too easily influenced, and thus people like Flasher are a real threat to her.
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Case Manager didn't take my concerns about Flasher too seriously. Therapist and I have a meeting at the workshop Tuesday on the respite situation. There will be much to address during the meeting. I'm considering pulling her out of the workshop the days Flasher is there. Interestingly, Daughter seemed to think staying home from the workshop on the days Flasher is there is a good idea. That tells me the situation there is very bad right now, because she hates missing any days for any reason. To be cut back to only 2 days a week there would usually generate big protests, but not today. I think I'd arrange respite care for the afternoons she doesn't go to the workshop. I'm generally around in the mornings working on sermons and administrative stuff. That would leave me free to do my visits in the afternoon. I'd have them work on her cleaning skills, as I see that as an area where she could eventually get community employment. This will work if we're moving soon. If not, the respite money will run out too quickly.
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God will provide the right place at the right time. Right now I need to keep reminding myself of that fact.
2 comments:
Community employment sounds like a great idea.
If I were in your daughter's shoes, I wouldn't feel motivated to work at the workshop because it's not a "real job;" it's make-work for people who don't fit into society.
There's some sort of program at my local convenience store where mentally handicapped people clean up the store and the parking lot, make sandwiches and stock the shelves. I frequently see several of the program's participants working there, being supervised by a woman who discreetly watches them and checks out their work.
The people in the program seem content and they're WORKING, not sitting around and creating drama, which seems to be the case at your DD's workshop.
Maybe getting out in the outside world would be good for her. The workshop where she is now really seems inappropriate.
She's no where near ready for community employment right now, but that continues to be my goal for her.
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