Well Truffles I am going to go out on a limb and face the wrath of other members of this forum. Why are you here? Who are you caring for? What is your background in the care of the mentally ill? How much do you actually know about psychotrophic drugs. Why are you promoting a not for profit arm of the Church of Scientology? I did look that up. I will report your post so you know who did it. If you really think anyone here is stupid enough to fill in that form about our mental illness,treatment and side effects of our medications you are sadly mistaken. Once they have our names and addresses no doubt the requests for money will follow. Doctors are perfectly free to invest their money anywhere they hope to make a profit just like you and me. Don't forget they have to provide for their families when they treat such things as Ebola. Now think about this which would you rather see. your grandmother running down the hallways of a nursing home stark naked pooping as she goes screaming at the top of her lungs lashing out at anyone she comes into contact with or dozing in her chair fully clothed in her own clothes suitably sedated. Not a hard question to answer is it.
Of course there is abuse of the elderly (and the young and middle aged) and at times it does involve the use of unsuitable medications
Well You will be old one day Lets hope you are not incarcerated and drugged against your will or even electric shocked ! Our so called mental health system is failing the elderly who deserve more than stigmatising labels and brain damaging drugs. Dementia patients should not be given harsh antipsychotics They can cause premature death FACT
I am happy to tell you I am already old. Our mental health system is failing everyone. Perhaps you would like to work in an institution for the elderly where no drugs were permitted. When your shift ended hopefully there would be a shower provided to get off all the s**t that had been thrown over you, your socks soaked in urine,food rubbed into your hair. No hazmat suits provided! Maybe there would be a dr on staff to suture the cuts and x-ray any broken bones. Maybe some ice for that big bruise on your head wher your head was banged on the bath taps. Thank goodness for Workmens Comp at least that would cover your medical expenses till you could find a different job. Oh and I forgot to mention the foul language and sexual harasement. demented old men just love the chance to "Feel up" a young or even not so young caretaker. You can't hit them, that is elder abuse. This is real life Truffles
Many people do feel very strongly about a general trend in overusing prescription drugs in the American culture. Then dealing with an elder with advanced dementia is like nothing you could imagine without experiencing it. I have friends who tell me, 'oh, yes, my mother is very difficult too' and I just have to remind myself that they have no idea how the level of difficulty is escalated by dementia. We went through the whole daily pill box routine, even the electronic one, (that hit the wall really fast) then distributing the pills, with the endless demands of returning her medicines, when she would dump all on the counter and start an endless counting game, etc. She wants her medicines, just can't manage things anymore. I think she always had delusions, but now the hallucinations have started. She insists on searching the house for the little boy even though she cannot manage the stairs. The mania she experiences is dangerous. Turns out she is not taking her pills routinely, some days yes, other days no. Intermittent use is probably the worst choice. I don't think apple sauce would work for her, she is very wary. So I empathize with this problem.
Truffles - Yes, anti-psychotics have serious side effects. So does chemotherapy and radiation therapies. So do HIV drugs. A lot of medication has potentially serious side effects but they aren't ruled out as a reasonable option because the benefits outweigh the risk. There are many anti-psychotics to choose from, and they are different from each other. This has to be a conversation with a psychiatrist and a medical doctor to determine the best path. Side effects are potentials, not promises. Sometimes doing nothing is the worst option.
Living with and try to caregive anyone who has psychosis and dementia at the same time is not something most people can comprehend, so it's easy to just write-off meds as bad because they're only looking at one set of factors. The alternative to meds is to restrain with straps, and that is actually truly cruel (not to mention illegal outside a hospital setting).
Intentional sedation has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Mom is not sleepy or passive on her meds. Dosage has to be very carefully monitored because side effects are very, very serious.
She's not just grumpy or cranky and negative off the meds. She is DANGEROUS. Withholding medication from her on some moral high ground is negligent. Otherwise, she would have to be restrained in a room all alone, indefinitely.
With her anti-psychotics, she can live in a home-like community with other people, participate in activities, and have some kind of life. Would I take that away from her? Absolutely not ever.
It's not a chemical lobotomy - that sounds like scaremongering from a sci-fi movie. She is not a drooling vegetable on the meds. She's still herself, but she isn't having psychotic rages that go on for days & days, hallucinations, spitting on the care workers, trying to claw them and make them bleed with her fingernails, and slapping/kicking them. She's not grabbing their fingers and trying to break them. She doesn't pick at her skin until she has bloody sores all over her arms & legs. She doesn't pull out her hair. She doesn't scream and rage at invisible people and animals. She isn't trying to find sharp things to stab her care workers with.
This is why I let the doctors do the doctoring. Her sisters would have her totally unmedicated, sitting in her house alone 24/7/365, crazy as a bedbug. They "just don't like the idea of medication" but at the same time were not willing to go in that house and deal with the realness, nastiness, and ugliness at all. She scares them and everybody else with her wild behaviors. It can't be both ways. Cruel is abandoning a person to their psychosis because the medications sound scary, and then hiding from the consequences because the person is weird, gross, and out of control.
Recent studies have shown that the risks of antipsychotics in the elderly outweigh any benefits . You cannot compare them to chemotherapy . A dementia patient will not die without these harsh deadly drugs Nearly 2000 elderly patients die each year from the side effects they cause . They can worsen memory loss, cause hallucinations and they frequently cause fatal falls in the elderly . They also cause irreversable tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. These poor frail old people deserve much better care than this. The drugs cause incontinence and confusion. I personally do not think they are fit for human consumption and should be banned for the elderly. Im sorry to say this but many psychiatrists have a vested interest in the pharmaceutical companies and they do over prescribe . We all need to check out our parents medication and watch out for side effects after all we are the people who love them most . Sometimes the kindest thing is to ween an old person off these toxic drugs and concentrate on a very healthy diet . Aggression is a major side effect of antipsychotics and should not always be attributed to the dementia . This is my opinion Sorry but I dont think doctors should be prescribing these drugs to dementia patients at all
Well, Truffles what can I say but that I think you'll have better results spreading that 1950s sci-fi manure on the flower garden than here. You are out of your depth, saying such ridiculous things to those of us who work and live in the world of dementia patients.
Scientology isn't exactly known for it's compassionate treatment of the elderly or infirm. Quite the opposite. Offloading (sudden abandonment) of the sick & elderly is common. Funny how you never hear of any CoF nursing homes & memory care centers!
Nobody electrocutes the elderly. Electrocution is nowhere in the standards of care for dementia. ECT is not even a recognized medical practice by the FDA. That practice died out ages ago unless you go to some private quack doctor.
I won't waste my time explaining how medication studies work, causation and correllation not being the same thing, and what potential side effects means. Potential means it's not certain.
Here's a news flash - people with dementia die all the time anyway. You can't stop that. It is utterly inhumane to withhold any means for comfort and respite for these folks during their days on this earth.
Well said Sandwich, glad I am not the only one with these views. Dealing with the teachings of an organisations whoose primary purpose is to create wealth for it's leaders. Wise up Truffles you have been brainwashed. Electric shocks and lobectomy went out of use many years ago
Hi Im really not a scientologist I work with the elderly and see every day how people deteriorate on these antipsychotics . They become very withdrawn or aggressive and frequently lose their appetites . Many doctors also agree that antipsychotics are dangerous for the old and frail . People need to wise up and stop putting their loved ones in the hands of psychiatrists There are lots of GOOD doctors out there if you look
Why are you here? Who are you caring for?
What is your background in the care of the mentally ill?
How much do you actually know about psychotrophic drugs.
Why are you promoting a not for profit arm of the Church of Scientology? I did look that up.
I will report your post so you know who did it.
If you really think anyone here is stupid enough to fill in that form about our mental illness,treatment and side effects of our medications you are sadly mistaken. Once they have our names and addresses no doubt the requests for money will follow.
Doctors are perfectly free to invest their money anywhere they hope to make a profit just like you and me. Don't forget they have to provide for their families when they treat such things as Ebola.
Now think about this which would you rather see. your grandmother running down the hallways of a nursing home stark naked pooping as she goes screaming at the top of her lungs lashing out at anyone she comes into contact with or dozing in her chair fully clothed in her own clothes suitably sedated.
Not a hard question to answer is it.
Of course there is abuse of the elderly (and the young and middle aged) and at times it does involve the use of unsuitable medications
Our mental health system is failing everyone.
Perhaps you would like to work in an institution for the elderly where no drugs were permitted.
When your shift ended hopefully there would be a shower provided to get off all the s**t that had been thrown over you, your socks soaked in urine,food rubbed into your hair. No hazmat suits provided! Maybe there would be a dr on staff to suture the cuts and x-ray any broken bones. Maybe some ice for that big bruise on your head wher your head was banged on the bath taps. Thank goodness for Workmens Comp at least that would cover your medical expenses till you could find a different job. Oh and I forgot to mention the foul language and sexual harasement. demented old men just love the chance to "Feel up" a young or even not so young caretaker. You can't hit them, that is elder abuse. This is real life Truffles
Living with and try to caregive anyone who has psychosis and dementia at the same time is not something most people can comprehend, so it's easy to just write-off meds as bad because they're only looking at one set of factors. The alternative to meds is to restrain with straps, and that is actually truly cruel (not to mention illegal outside a hospital setting).
Intentional sedation has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Mom is not sleepy or passive on her meds. Dosage has to be very carefully monitored because side effects are very, very serious.
She's not just grumpy or cranky and negative off the meds. She is DANGEROUS. Withholding medication from her on some moral high ground is negligent. Otherwise, she would have to be restrained in a room all alone, indefinitely.
With her anti-psychotics, she can live in a home-like community with other people, participate in activities, and have some kind of life. Would I take that away from her? Absolutely not ever.
It's not a chemical lobotomy - that sounds like scaremongering from a sci-fi movie. She is not a drooling vegetable on the meds. She's still herself, but she isn't having psychotic rages that go on for days & days, hallucinations, spitting on the care workers, trying to claw them and make them bleed with her fingernails, and slapping/kicking them. She's not grabbing their fingers and trying to break them. She doesn't pick at her skin until she has bloody sores all over her arms & legs. She doesn't pull out her hair. She doesn't scream and rage at invisible people and animals. She isn't trying to find sharp things to stab her care workers with.
This is why I let the doctors do the doctoring. Her sisters would have her totally unmedicated, sitting in her house alone 24/7/365, crazy as a bedbug. They "just don't like the idea of medication" but at the same time were not willing to go in that house and deal with the realness, nastiness, and ugliness at all. She scares them and everybody else with her wild behaviors. It can't be both ways. Cruel is abandoning a person to their psychosis because the medications sound scary, and then hiding from the consequences because the person is weird, gross, and out of control.
Scientology isn't exactly known for it's compassionate treatment of the elderly or infirm. Quite the opposite. Offloading (sudden abandonment) of the sick & elderly is common. Funny how you never hear of any CoF nursing homes & memory care centers!
Nobody electrocutes the elderly. Electrocution is nowhere in the standards of care for dementia. ECT is not even a recognized medical practice by the FDA. That practice died out ages ago unless you go to some private quack doctor.
I won't waste my time explaining how medication studies work, causation and correllation not being the same thing, and what potential side effects means. Potential means it's not certain.
Here's a news flash - people with dementia die all the time anyway. You can't stop that. It is utterly inhumane to withhold any means for comfort and respite for these folks during their days on this earth.
Electric shocks and lobectomy went out of use many years ago