Normally, you don’t hear many compliments about our mental health care system especially when a Baker Act is involved. But recently we had an experience where everything went great!
There are times when everyone involved does it all really well.
This happened with one of our clients, a head-injured fella (and my longest guardianship case, coming up on 20 years), who was having increased difficult behaviors in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).
He was demonstrating medication non-compliance, aggressiveness, and was potentially facing discharge from his current SNF to who knows where, due to his out of control behavior. He was sent 911 to the hospital, who clinically cleared him in the ER, and then sent him to the psych unit under a Baker Act.
It was a long list of all of the folks who did all that they could to be helpful, kind, effective, interested, and creative. Anyone of these people had the ability to be the bottleneck, and to make this situation not go well for our client.
From the orderly who took our suggestion to talk about muscle cars to get the client to eat and take his meds; to the magistrate who took the extra time to understand the discharge struggles we were facing; to the sheriff deputies who stood down and did not overreact and make things more stressful during the Baker Act when our client got a bit hot-headed and mouthy; to the State’s Attorney, two weeks into her new job, who took the time to ASK what was the best course of action for our client; to the social worker, the discharge planner, and the psychiatrist, everyone played a hand in truly helping us to help our client.
South Seminole Hospital in Longwood, FL, did an exemplary job of truly helping this man. It was a breath of fresh air, and for that we give thanks.
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This blog is shared by Theresa Barton, the expert behind The Guardian Network with more than 25 years of experience in the field of Elder Advocacy, Care Management and Guardianship. Learn more about Theresa’s work and resources for families, caregivers and health, support and legal professionals here.
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