I'm really scared and sad for my mom and need some advice please.
My mom was fine, besides frailty and fall risk (she's 72) until last week. She has no history of mental illness. The UTI dip test was mild sus, but the final culture was negative. She started hallucinating one night and I thought maybe it was just a vivid dream. The next morning she was delusional and hallucinating still, packing the whole house so a plane could land in the living room. I called 911, but she was aware of place and time so they refused to take her. I had to trick her into going to her gp with me the next day so the gp could tell her the symptoms were serious enough to get tested. CT, labs, xray, was done and nothing showing except the mildly sus urine test. They didn't keep her for observation and seemed to stop having hallucinations when she was made aware that she was having them. The next morning she was catatonic and I could not wake her up. This time 911 took her in and they immediately suspected schizophrenia. I didn't know what to think I asked them to observe her overnight and do an MRI and neuro consult the next day. They did, and said everything was fine. They said she took out her IV, tried to lock herself in the bathroom and tried to fight the security guy with a chair. It's hard for me to believe this because she's generally frail, but I know strength can change during psychosis. They transferred her to a behavioral observation unit, that doesn't do IV's, etc. She's refusing foods and meds. All of her symptoms have been getting worse rapidly over the past week. Yesterday, she had a good day. We had a conversation that made sense and she even made a joke. Today she's no longer trusting me much either. The thought the nurses were demons and the food was poisoned. I don't know how this works and my heart is so broken. This happened so suddenly and I'm scared for her. They're saying they will have to do a 1013 hold and transfer her to another facility. This scares me too because I don't know how that works and all I've ever heard is nightmares about places like that. She doesn't have a POA and I'm her only family that cares at all. The rest of her family treated her like crap and abused her. She is someone who has always been scared of medicine because she watched her grandparent die from a medication mix up. But not that fear and paranoia I fear is going to make her go to the kind of hospital she's always feared. I don't know what to expect or do. I don't know what to ask. I wish there was another type of facility that would enforce medication without it being a psychiatric hospital where I can't even visit her for an unknown duration. Is there even a max on how long they can hold them? She just wants to go home and says she'll take the meds at home, but she wouldn't even go to the ER. It's just me and I can't be awake 24hrs a day to keep her safe. Please give me some words of wisdom or advice or anything.