My complaint:
I have a roommate who is schizophrenic and is a patient at the Metro Campus. Her case manager is Barry and he has not been to see Betty in the past 2 years I have lived with her. I called him 2 weeks ago to tell him that Betty is currently going through psychosis and was a danger to herself and others. He simply told me that I am seeing behaviors that he is not so the only thing he can do is talk to her. He spoke with her on the phone and arranged an appointment for the next day. When she refused to go to that appointment he did nothing about it. She is supposed to have her shot and be on medication. He even told me over the phone when I asked him what I should do if I had to take matters into my own hands, I said do I go petition the hospital to have her admitted against her will? He said, and I quote, You got to do what you got to do and thats all I can say. This was 2 weeks ago and he hasn’t called or stopped by. What kind of way is this to treat a patient who has a history of serious mental issues and is not getting the treatment she in desparately in need of? Just ignoring her and hope that I will do his job for him? It is not acceptable. I am not a case manager nor do I wish to do his job for him. If this is how they treat all of their patients with mental illness no wonder why the hospitals and police are so overwhelmed with calls about these type of people. Of course they are going to need some form of help and hopefully not harm other people or themselves before they get it. Something is wrong with the system they have in place at Partners in Recovery Metro Campus here in AZ. I actually do not believe they have a system at all. If Betty has fallen through the cracks I am willing to bet there are at least a dozen more who have also been ignored. Something has to be done and soon. Since Mr. Barry Case Manager doesn’t seem to think he has to do his job and actually come out to visit Betty or make sure she comes in for her medicine then I have to create a vey hostile and nasty environment in our home. Betty is afraid of going to the hospital and she is getting very angry and hostile towards me for calling Barry and the crisis line about her. If I go and have her admitted against her will, with the cops showing up and placing her in handcuffs, then she is really going to make both of our lives miserable. If he would just do his freaking job the right way then this all could be avoided. I can’t believe that they have let her go on this long this way with people who know her telling him that she is in desperate need of help. Now because of all of this she has stopped going to her Cancer treatment for her stage 3 lung cancer because she believes that she is cured in her current state of psychosis.
Suggested solution:
They should do their damn jobs and help her. No matter what that takes. Which will probably be to admit her against her will but at least if he does it she will not make me suffer for being the one to do it. He needs to stop ignoring her and be the case manager that he is supposed to be. He can come out to our apartment and do a home visit like he is supposed to be doing once a month anyways and then he can see for himself that she is in desperate need of help. He should be ashamed of himself for ignoring her and letting it go on for this long. It's his responsibility to make sure she stays on her treatment plan, not mine. So he can simply resolve this by doing the job he was hired to do and stop letting other people who are not trained professionals try to figure it out.
