When Living at Home Is Not a Good Idea
The well-being of both family members and patients should be considered when deciding where someone with schizophrenia should live. The living arrangements have to work for both parties. If the patient is not yet functioning at a level high enough to benefit from living at home with family members, consider another arrangement.
Resentment, anger, and lack of support in a domestic setting can seriously hinder progress against schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. It is bad for the person struggling with the disease and for those living with him.
Essential
Constant care is an obvious advantage of hospitalization. This is especially important if the person poses a threat to herself or others. In this case protective methods such as isolation and, in extreme cases, restraint, can only be used for a short time and performed in a hospital setting under close observation by highly specialized personnel until the patient is calmed and the threat passes.
A psychiatrist will examine the patient, evaluate the symptoms, and formulate a treatment plan. If a patient can receive better care initially in a hospital than in an outpatient setting, hospitalization is indicated.
No patient, however, should be hospitalized if he can receive adequate treatment in a less confining setting and adequate living arrangements outside the hospital can be arranged. Possible options range from full-time commitment to a psychiatric hospital to residential care or supervised independent living.
No Other Choice
Hospitalization is the obvious choice when a patient's symptoms become so severe he cannot be cared for effectively as an outpatient or he poses a danger to himself or others. The decision to hospitalize a patient depends on several considerations. One is the seriousness or severity of the illness.
Another is the availability of a social support network provided by family, friends, and/or other caregivers. The presence of an effective support group may make it possible for one patient to receive care at home while another patient with a similar illness may receive better treatment in a hospital.
Woolis advises that a person may not thrive at home if there is only one parent. The arrangement weakens the parent's relationship with the children, or siblings react negatively. Parents who are incapable of giving support and encouragement should not be primary caregivers. And, of course, anyone with schizophrenia who abuses street drugs or alcohol and is not in a drug treatment program should not live at home.
