How to help someone with a weed addiction and now schizophrenia in Ireland?

chinacup

So the person is my brother who is an 18 year old guy. He has been smoking weed for over 4 years now which Im pretty sure has caused his recent clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia. The situation is very bad as he is very far gone. I live in a different county but I care about him a lot and want to do something to help.

Some of the problems to be faced are that the family don't have money to get him good treatment, they aren't a supportive family in general, the services currently being provided are useless and he is so bad that I don't think he can live on his own. He came back from two weeks in hospital last night and the first thing he did was to go out probably to smoke weed again. He lives with our mum who can't control him. He has started on abilify but I dont know if he will take it.

Im worried for his welfare but feel totally powerless without information and money. Also my mum isn't doing much about the sitiation I think she is exhausted and can't do much anymore after 3 years of the situation worsening. The only thing we do have is the medical card.

Please if anyone has been in a similar situation and found solutions or can offer sound advice I appreciate anything I can get. Thank u!

chinacup

chinacup wrote: »

So the person is my brother who is an 18 year old guy. He has been smoking weed for over 4 years now which Im pretty sure has caused his recent clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia. The situation is very bad as he is very far gone. I live in a different county but I care about him a lot and want to do something to help.

Some of the problems to be faced are that the family don't have money to get him good treatment, they aren't a supportive family in general, the services currently being provided are useless and he is so bad that I don't think he can live on his own. He came back from two weeks in hospital last night and the first thing he did was to go out probably to smoke weed again. He lives with our mum who can't control him. He has started on abilify but I dont know if he will take it.

Im worried for his welfare but feel totally powerless without information and money. Also my mum isn't doing much about the sitiation I think she is exhausted and can't do much anymore after 3 years of the situation worsening. The only thing we do have is the medical card.

Please if anyone has been in a similar situation and found solutions or can offer sound advice I appreciate anything I can get. Thank u!

I don't think there is much you can do if he's not ready to help himself.

Have a look at http://www.shineonline.ie and see if you can get help for your mum to cope better which in turn will help your brother, good luck, Gary.

chinacup

gary71 wrote: »

I don't think there is much you can do if he's not ready to help himself.

Have a look at http://www.shineonline.ie and see if you can get help for your mum to cope better which in turn will help your brother, good luck, Gary.

Im sorry but wanting to help himself is out of the question.. he is beyond that point. He forgets what you say in 5 minutes.

chinacup

chinacup wrote: »

Im sorry but wanting to help himself is out of the question.. he is beyond that point. He forgets what you say in 5 minutes.

I promise you the answers are out there but it can be hard to find, there are support groups for family's and Shine would be a good place to start, email them or phone them.

When I was in a similar position I was able to speak to my wife's psychologist and I had great support and learnt huge amounts from my wife's mental health nurse who was/is monitoring my wife.

If my wife was in the same position as your brother the health service themselves would look to take her back to hospital.

chinacup

gary71 wrote: »

I promise you the answers are out there but it can be hard to find, there are support groups for family's and Shine would be a good place to start, email them or phone them.

When I was in a similar position I was able to speak to my wife's psychologist and I had great support and learnt hugh amounts from my wife's mental health nurse who was/is monitoring my wife.

If my wife was in the same position as your brother the health service themselves would look to take her back to hospital.

Thank you Gary I appreciate it. I am hypersensitive when people say things like if he isn't ready to help himself there is nothing you can do.. because his brain is so badly damaged that he is helpless. And the services in Galway are useless/abusive, they do as little as possible while blaming the patient. They should be sued if it wasn't so hard to do. Thanks for the link.

Taco Chips

Psychology will help, in the long term.

But he needs to engage with psychiatry first. I'm assuming he has a consultant and thats where he got his first diagnosis of schizophrenia. If he has a medication plan then making sure he's happy with it and understands why he needs to take them to help with his mood and psychotic symptoms. If he has all that down then there are a few living through psychosis programs involving CBT that can help him with some of the extraneous thought patterns. But number one is how your brother seeks help and making sure he can recognise problems on his own. Best of luck OP.

Taco Chips

Psychology will help, in the long term.

But he needs to engage with psychiatry first. I'm assuming he has a consultant and thats where he got his first diagnosis of schizophrenia. If he has a medication plan then making sure he's happy with it and understands why he needs to take them to help with his mood and psychotic symptoms. If he has all that down then there are a few living through psychosis programs involving CBT that can help him with some of the extraneous thought patterns. But number one is how your brother seeks help and making sure he can recognise problems on his own. Best of luck OP.