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Guardian
Casual Contributor

Training

Good Evening to all you night owls.

 

Thank you for the website and this forum. I hope it will be a resource that I can draw upon. My situation is that soon I will be caring for a 29 year old Thai woman who is hearing voices. She stayed with me once before in March this year for about 2 weeks. Her behaviour was affectionate, cute and delightful but with an undefined strangeness. Unfortuately, her english is not very good and so she has trouble expressing herself. After staying with me she went to stay with a known male friend who she has stayed with before. Unfortunately, that did not end well with an AVO against her and a short stay in jail for domestic violence. On this ocassion, it would appear that she was committed in a mental hospital for about 2 weeks. She was released as she is not deemed to be dangerous. Her voices are not telling her to do bad things. She is currently staying with her twin sister and her male friend. Unfortunately, he does not want her staying with them as her behaviour towards him is abusive. So, I have agreed to care for her again.

 

What I am hoping to achieve is some sort of training as a carer of some one who appears to be suffering from Schizophrenia.

 

My plan is to be firm but gentle and to ask her to make a contribution to our 'family' life by being in charge of the cleaning. She did this last time on her own initiative. The second part is to help her to improve her english - spoken, reading, writing and comprehension. Eventually, I would like her to find work and become independant. She has also expressed the desire to achieve this. So, what suggestions do you have? Am I being too ambitious? Are there any training courses available for me to learn how best to manage this situation?

8 REPLIES 8
Guardian
Casual Contributor

Re: Training

I just found this link re 60 tips! Great start!

 

http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/60tip.html

Re: Training

hello @Guardian , that is a big step my friend 

How are you feelinf about it and how is your friend today 

Thank you for the Link 

@greenpea@Schitzo 

greenpea
Senior Contributor

Re: Training

@Guardian  Hey Guardian and welcome. Everyone with schizophrenia is different. I really cannot give you advice as to whether she should be helping out around the house or not as simply doing the task of brushing her teeth could be difficult for her everyone is different. I would give her time to settle in and watch and learn through experience. You have taken on a big task of which I give you credit for just make sure you look after yourself as well. greenpeax

Re: Training

Thanks Greenpea. She is quite capable of doing things even without my asking so I have no doubt she can do more if she is willing. Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Training

Hi Shaz51, To be honest i know I may be taking on a serious responsibility but now that i know her I just feel that I must help in some way. She is not with me yet. We are still trying to move her from her current residence as she is not welcomed there any more. She is reluctant to leave as she obviously feels comfortable there. A deadline has been set for next weekend so I have she will comply and come with me. Thank you for asking.

Re: Training

Hi there are various courses that you can undertake such as Certificate IV in Mental Health.

Re: Training

Giving of yourself to help someone is not too ambitious, it is the right thing to do, and very brave, strong and caring. It will be easy to hard, but you know that.

 

She is sane, she just can not tell what is real and what is not. And it is so hard to find proof, yet seeking proof and truth can help. It can also help to rest from this by focusing on a distraction sometimes, like watching a movie. Ultimately, she want to know what is real and what is true, but it's so hard when you are facing so very many possiblities.

Re: Training

Hi Everyone,

 

I would like to give you a quick update on my situation. She came to stay with me but quickly left to stay else where. This became a pattern as she was often asked to leave the other places but could always come back to me. In the end, she was not happy living with me and decided to hand herself in to immigration. She is now in detention and awaits deportation. She has found herself a boyfriend in detention and no longers wants me to visit her. I hope she will find her happiness and that her boyfriend treats her well. I doubt that I will ever see her again.

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