No place for the patients in hospitals
and treatment homes
Birgitta Funkquist who works at IFS in Gothenburg
talks a lot with mentally ill people’s relatives. She emphasizes
that many patients and their relatives live a good life, and that
she gets in contact with those who have the toughest conditions.
Birgitta Funkquist gets continuous proof that the relatives are
a vulnerable group of people that receive insufficient support.
According to research, the relatives want a greater participation
in care and more support for themselves. Birgitta Funkquist, however,
believes that the best way to help the relatives is to give the
patients greater support.
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The most serious problem within the care of schizophrenic patients
today is that there is no room for the sick individuals at the hospitals,
nursing homes or other places within health care, and that there
is a great demand for group living. Instead, the patients are sent
home to an apartment of their own or to their parents. But schizophrenia
is often too severe of an illness for the parents to take care of
the sick person. It may for instance be difficult to assure that
the patient takes her medicine, and many people who suffer from
schizophrenia need supervision day and night, continues Birgitta.
- When a patient with a psychotic illness
has been nursed in hospital she is discharged as soon as the visible
symptoms have started to disappear. But that does not mean she is
well and able to function in daily life. Instead the adaptation
should proceed gradually, and the patient should receive support
in the most elementary tasks, such as getting up in the morning,
making breakfast, eating or having a shower. But the hospitals lack
this kind of training. There is a demand for places where the patients
could receive psychotherapy and therapy to handle their daily life
before they are sent home, Birgitta goes on.
Back to the index page for Lena's column
about relatives
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