My mom is a serious alcoholic. 76 years old but more like 90. She lives in my neighborhood, not my home. I am an only child and there is NO other family around, period. I was out of town for 2 days in March and she had a panic attack and called 911, admitted to the hospital for a couple of days. In April she spent 10 days in a senior mental health/detox facility. Took a bad fall in May, hit her head, I called 911. She was admitted to the hospital for a couple of days. I begged for the hospital not to release her but they did. She took another fall last week and twisted up her foot. She refuses to discuss any other living arrangement (I will not have her live with me - she is verbally abusive and nasty) and mentions suicide on a regular basis (this has been going on for years and yes I've informed ALL of the doctors). If she is hospitalized again, can I refuse to pick her up?
mother.
Grace + Peace,
Bob
No, you don’t have to pick her up.
It seems to me that it would be much like you or I being released. Depending on your mom’s diagnosis/condition at the time of discharge, while you may refuse to pick her up, sometimes hospitals send people home in a cab.
Since she is competent and drives she will probably just have them deliver her home.
If she can’t walk etc then the hospital might send her to rehab unless she arranged for another option.
Will she tell the nurse to call you? You just need to be ready to say no. Or call and tell the discharge folks ahead of time not to bother that you aren’t coming and they need to work it out with her.
So, I can't see how you can be expected to endorse a decision that you genuinely believe is wrong and not in your mother's best interests. More than refuse to collect her, state your active disagreement with the discharge and ask them to put it on record.
I think you can refuse to pick her up from hospital.
This is just going to go on and on. Obviously, needing rehab/detox, but probably the hospital just wants to turf her out of there. She can be forced into a 3 day psych hold for verbalizing suicide desires...but beyond that, it's not going to be something an ER doc will handle.
AND stay tough. Don't let her move in with you.
Perhaps some Al-Anon (is that the support group for families of alcoholics?) could help you to understand her actions and how to set boundaries.