Caring assistance?

[Astret]

I am an only child, my parents are divorced and my mum lives 160 miles away in Scotland. But she has a mental illness, a form of anxiety which completely incapacitates her. Most days she doesnt even bother to wash or get dressed, just sits in front of the telly in her nightie. She has a psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse visit, but often she cleans up a bit before seeing them. She doesn't have a social worker and I don't know how to get her one. Does anyone have any advice as to how I can improve her standard of living/social interaction? She is totally hung up on the hope of getting a job, but has been out of work over 20 years and refuses to do voluntary work. Lask week she hit an old lady with her car because she wasn't paying attention, luckily the old lady was ok, but I really need to get my mum some help - what can I do? It's very difficult to visit as I am studying for a PhD

[saxy_jag]

What would want a social worker to do for your mum? They are really there to help people access other services, and it helps to have an idea to start with of what you'd like those services to be.

It also depends on the extent to which your mother acknowledges her illness and its associated problems.

Your first call might be to the psychiatric nurse, Ask him or her what's available to your mother in terms of support, and how she might access it. Perhaps there's a work training scheme she could get on to that's especially tailored for people with mental illnesses.

Another idea might be the sort of place I used to help out at - an social club where members could chat, have tea/coffee, take part in various activities (I used to run a poetry workshop at ours - reading and talking about, that sort of thing). Sometimes we had speakers in, and often, members would get involved in the running of stuff. Our group was at the local FE college, supported by the mental health charity, MIND, who were an invaluable source of support and advice to workers and members alike.

http://www.mind.org.uk/

[Astret]

Thanks, but the biggest problem is that my mother is a neurotic - she will not acknowledge there is anything wrong with her. Through letters with her psychiatrist I did manage to get her access to a drop in centre, but she stopped going, initially telling tall tales about how "it had been shut down because the nurses were all smoking pot", but later arguing that she couldn't talk to anyone there becase they were all severly mentally disabled. My mother is probably capable enough to attend normal college classes or social clubs, it's just that she doesnt know/think about them and then lacks the motivation to keep going.