Sedation of Mentally Ill Patient for Transportation

[lookingforasolution]

My girlfriend (of 7 years) has a brother who has a significant case of aspergers. Her family has tried taking him to several different places in our state (WA) to get help. Unfortunately, everyone has told us that he doesn't fit the criteria for proper care. Over the last 7 years, his blow-ups have become exponentially worse. He is now 17, addicted to violent video games, and poses a threat to himself and those around him whenever he "blows up."

We have found a special institution in Utah where we hope he can get the help he needs. He is almost 18 and this school is one of our final chances before he is legally an adult. Now that he has been accepted and loans approved to finance this, our greatest obstacle is getting him there. Although he understands the significance of attending this school, it is inevitable that he will explode at some point during the trip - he has already shown reluctance in going. I know this sounds horrible, but I had the idea of sedating him for the 14 hour drive. Flight is out of the question.

At the same time, I find myself internally fighting with the idea that if he does not want help, how helpful will this be if we force him to go?

I'm posting here to get any insight from someone with experience in a situation like this. My greatest fear is that nothing significant in his life will change until he hurts himself or someone else. My girlfriend and her family are growing weak in dealing with this. His mother gives in too easily to his demands (video games, food, etc.) because she is worn out and he has grown to be forceful - it's easier for her to give in than put up a fight (which is still the wrong thing to do IMO). As my girlfriend recently told me, "threats don't get help, action gets help." My conscience struggles with simply waiting for something horrible to happen in order to get the right kind of help he needs.

Any suggestions for getting him down there or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

[paramedicmike]

Nobody here is going to give you a recommendation on sedating your girlfriend's mentally ill brother. That's a legal mess nobody is going to get involved in.

Your girlfriend's family needs to talk to this family member's medical team and develop a plan to get this person to whatever program he'll be attending. Those who provide medical care for this individual will have the best information on local resources available, if any exist, that may or may not help.

[island emt]

sorry not touching this one with a ten foot pole.

You said it above, The mother has long ago caved in allowing the behaviors to flourish & providing the violent video games and there's the blame.

I am very familiar with aspergers syndrome as my wife taught special needs and directed a school with severe autistic and aspergers students for over 10 years..

Providing them medication will not help as it often works the opposite with them causing severe effects.

go to his medical team and get help.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Ditto, the legal morass you are asking us to address and even tacitly approve is something that no one on this forum should even begin to address with you.

If you do it on your own then that's on you.

But I second the idea of going to the care team involved in his care. They are the ones you should be asking this question of not us.

I do wish you luck, but the first thing that needs to happen is for the entire family to be behind this effort and the Mom needs to stop enabling him and "caving".

I also wonder how you are going to get him to the school, do you plan on taking him yourself or are you going to enlist professional help (EG EMS)

There are some EMS Services that will help you out on this, you just have to find the right one.

I do wish you the best but this isn't your call, our call or anyone elses call but the immediate family in CLOSE and I mean CLOSE collaboration with the guys medical team.

My advice to you is this, if you are in EMS I would stay out of this hornet's nest. Let them deal with it and you provide support to the girlfriend when she gets upset about his blow ups. Your job is to be supportive of the girlfriend but NOT NOT NOT to get involved in the decision to sedate this guy.

If you are in EMS, Do not give even the impression that sedation would be a good idea because if something were to happen, the family may turn on you like a pack of rabid dogs attacking a poor defenseless rabbit.

And by NO UNCERTAIN terms should you accompany this guy to the facility, especially if you are in EMS, that's a HUGE liability on your end.

But other than that, I hope little brother gets the help he needs.

[lookingforasolution]

I am not in EMS, I'm just a guy that came across this site when looking for some resources (this topic was discussed here about four years ago). The family doesn't have much of a medical team; however, the doctor that does his medicine management is meeting with them tomorrow. He had broken out of the regional psych ward and hospital before, so we'll be interested to see what kind of recommendation the doctor will make for a way to transport.

Appreciate the feedback here - all except for the hyperlink... his "blow-ups" consist of threatening our lives, destructing our home, and personal harm to himself - not sexual toys.

[medicmole]

I agree with all the comments above. I think the best way to get him there is have a Dr arrange medical transport. Here in BC psych patients are sedated for transport but that is done by medical professionals not family members.

Good luck, I hope your brother in law gets the help he needs.

By the way the links are added by the site not the poster, I doubt Ruffmeister intentionally posted a link to blow up dolls.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Ok, more clarification from Looking - thank you for that.

I would see what the doctor has to say. He might just shine in this case.

I do wish you luck.

[lookingforasolution]

It will be interesting to see how tomorrow's appointment goes. It amazes me how much my state (WA) neglects mental health issues like this. Through 7 years of looking for help, we're still at ground zero. It doesn't help when he breaks out of the hospital & psych ward, but I would hope to think in this day in age we would have more resources to deal with these kind of situations. Thanks again for the advice.

[Arctickat]

As an aside, the hyperlink you mentioned is an automatically placed ad that is used as a source of revenue for the website. Only free members can see it, so none of us here knew what you were talking about. The automatic advertising robot fella takes key words and links them to what it thinks is subject matter in the discussion. In this case, (I am making the assumption) the word blow up took you to a site regarding dolls.

It wasn't intentional.

[Just Plain Ruff]

the word blow up took you to a site regarding dolls.

Just what sites do you visit Arctic?