Capacity and choice

[brighte]

Hi all
My wife has clinical depression, she has been sectioned three times in 6 months, each time after a few weeks of having meds given she says she will take them, comes home and doesn’t.
She’s been home now for about 4 months. At the start she was taking some meds but the last 5 weeks she has stopped completely. She keeps cancelling the CPN, and even that, and the not taking meds is a relapse trigger on her care plan, mental health services don’t seem worried. They are basically saying she has capacity and so it’s her choice. I don’t think she is sectionable (and I don’t want that), but I. Incredibly frustrated at the lack of prevention. My wife refuses most support- but that is part of her presentation, along with not taking meds because she isn’t ill

She spends all day in bed, playing on a game on her mobile to stop her anxiety and her negative thoughts. She doesn’t eat unless I cook, I hav3 to tell her to wash, she doesn’t speak to anyone and won’t even go into the garden
If she had a physical condition, such as diabetes, and said she wasn’t taking insulin because she wasn’t ill, I’m sure the doctors would be querying her capacity to make decisions, but because it is mental health it seems to be accepted
We have no life. I’m struggling to cope and maintain this relationship, but this person is not the person I’ve loved for 20 years and I see no i improvement. Professionals are basically saying it’s her choice, we can’t do anything until she deteriorated to the point she needs hospital. If I leave she would. She says she will kill herself if I leave
I just want her well, but no one seems to have any suggestions and I’m not sure how long I can continue living like this

[tofler]

Hi brighte, welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear about what's going on, it sounds like a very difficult situation for you and your wife. The fact that your wife has been sectioned 3 times in 6 months suggests to me that the approach that services are taking obviously isn't working. By the way, when she has been sectioned, is it section 2 of the Mental Health Act that's being used? That would be for a hospital admission of 28 days, for an assessment of your wife's mental health.

Have you tried looking around for an advocacy service in your local area? There should be one and it might be a good idea to get them involved so they can help you to remind services and professionals that the Mental Capacity Act tells us that capacity fluctuates over time (it isn't some permanent feature that we have all the time) and maybe your wife no longer has capacity when she is unwell. Have they ever undertaken an assessment of her capacity? If this hasn't been done, or wasn't done very recently, you could try pushing them to do a capacity assessment now, whilst your wife is very unwell. Put this request in writing to them and/or ask an advocacy service to make this request on behalf of you and your wife.

Anyway, I hope that somehow things start to improve for you and your wife. Please let us know how things are going.