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13-10-2016 09:32 PM
13-10-2016 09:32 PM
Looking for advice
I'm hoping someone can offer advice.
My brother in law who has a history of schizophrenia went missing on Monday. He walked out of his house he shares with his mother with nothing but a shirt, skirt, cap and shoes. Police found him on Wednesday morning non-responsive and admitting to hearing voices.
They took him to St. Vincent's and we were told he was going to be admitted. 7 hours later we were told they had discharged him. It is a long story but we have now been told police won't register him as a missing person as the psych team at the hospital decided he wasn't a risk despite his intital assessor telling us he needed admission.
We are at a loss as to what we can do. His history has included periods of being catatonic and a previous case of going missing where he ended up being physically hurt whilst living on the streets.
We are all based in Sydney.
Thanks
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13-10-2016 10:01 PM
13-10-2016 10:01 PM
Re: Looking for advice
Hi @BILkeeper
I'm so sorry to hear what you're going through.
Just to clarify - is he missing again now since being discharged? You mentioned that the police won't register him as a missing person, so I wasn't sure if that meant he has gone missing again.
Also - just to let you know that we don't usually allow disclosure of specific hospitals etc due to privacy, defamation and the anonymous nature of these Forums. I completely understand that this wasn't intentional, so I just wanted to give you a heads up. You can read more about it in the Community Guidelines.
Here are some FAQs about Missing Persons, which you may not give you the exact answers, but might give you some idea of your rights. For example, there's a question there that says 'Can people go missing more than once' and the response says:
Approximately one third of missing persons go missing more than once. Each time a person goes missing, it is treated as an individual report.
So the reason that the police won't classify him as a missing person doesn't seem appropriate.
Again, I'm sorry you're going through this frustrating ordeal.
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13-10-2016 10:20 PM
13-10-2016 10:20 PM
Re: Looking for advice
Apologies can I edit that out somehow?
He left Sydney and was registered as a missing person. He was located in Melbourne and taken to the hospital but was discharged. We contacted Melbourne police today but they said they can't do anything. I have spoken to one of the hospital team and they have said they have flagged his record if he returns and will contact us.
My husband, mother in law and his son and our kids are just at a loss and we don't know what to do or what we can do. He hasn't been well for a while but decided to stop his medication and then left. The hospital couldn't even tell me if he had eaten which he hadn't done for 5 days prior to leaving.
Being in a different state is making it harder.
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14-10-2016 02:24 PM
14-10-2016 02:24 PM
Re: Looking for advice
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15-10-2016 02:04 PM
15-10-2016 02:04 PM
Re: Looking for advice
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15-10-2016 02:23 PM
15-10-2016 02:23 PM
Re: Looking for advice
I just found this web site as needing to dump thoughts and your blog was the first on the list...this must happen to so many families- heartbreaking
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15-10-2016 03:30 PM
15-10-2016 03:30 PM