A prior case involved a young adult age 24 with a complex mental health issue. We were asked to provide advocacy.
The young adult had overdosed on opioids but survived. He was stunned that he lived because he had learned a lot about how to suicide successfully but he had failed.
So there he was not really believing that he was alive. But 5 days in a locked unit in a psychiatric facility dining on macaroni and cheese and listening to the other patients screaming at the nurses had brought him back to a reality that he did not really like.
So he was able to talk his way out of the locked facility.
Now at home, he could resume his secret activities on the dark web of buying and importing opioids. Unless someone started to monitor what he was doing. No one seemed interested in that. Might be a breach of privacy.
It did not matter that importing narcotics with the intent to distribute was a Federal crime. Didn’t matter. He was invicible, maybe.
So our ultimate job as patient advocates was to help him.
Unfortunately, our plan to introduce an integrated team of experts to provide advice did not fly with his parents.
In fact, there was a dust up with the parents and our team of advocates.
The only way for us to help this young adult was to transfer him to the care of another provider.
This is known as a bridging strategy. So we offered to allow for a peaceful and seamless transition to the next provider.
And the bridging strategy was used to ultimately help this young adult who otherwise would have been left without a treatment plan or continued to break the law and eventually end up in prison or in the trunk of a car.
Remember, to use or recommend a bridging strategy if you run into a similar type of situation and ultimately want to help the patient.
Raymond Rupert patient advocate.