You know, it sounds like your father has Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Fathers can be the perpetrators, too.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/c ... t/85/3/370I don't know how knowing that can help you, except that since the actionassist people list in their mission statement that helping patients live independently is one of their goals, you need to express to them that you want to move out.
That actionassist organization has as part of their mission statement helping patients live independently.
I have bipolar disorder. You may not have schizophrenia, but I really do have a major mental illness.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a lawyer, this is not specific legal advice.
That doesn't mean I have no rights, and whether you are schizophrenic or not, you have rights, too.
The most important thing to remember about your rights is that you should never, ever, ever sign any form or waiver without reading it and fully understanding what it is that you're signing. If you're woozy on tranquilizers or something and don't understand, then just don't sign ANYTHING until you're sober again. Even if that's a long time. If you're not good with legalese, ask one of the nurses or whoever to explain, in detail, any parts you don't understand.
Read all the fine print, always.
Do not ever, ever, ever waive the right to be present in person at any hearings. Do not ever, ever, ever waive the right to a hearing before a judge. In general, don't sign things waiving rights, and don't sign privacy release forms unless you're absolutely sure those forms do NOT release information to your father. Do NOT sign any forms that list your father as your next of kin. Scratch his name out, fill in whoever you want to be considered next of kin, initial the change, and then sign. If they won't let you change it that way, refuse to sign.
Go ahead and start getting a job and getting ready to move out. If you have a friend that will let you move in with them, or you can get a roommate, or a boyfriend, move out.
If he tries to get you committed, you can turn that to your advantage to permanently break his hold over you for the rest of your life.
What you can do is call Legal Aid and get them to help you write a living will. Your living will should state that in case of your becoming incompetent to make your own medical or mental health decisions you want {name} to make those decisions for you. Then you say that in the event that the courts find {name} unacceptable for some reason, or if for some reason {name} is unable to fulfill the function, you want the Court to appoint a Guardian Ad Litem for you. State in your living will that you specifically do not want your father to have any access to you, your doctors, or any of your medical records whatsoever. State in your living will that anybody a Court selects other than your father will be more acceptable to you than your father would be. State that you do not wish for your father to be considered your next of kin. State who you do want to be considered your next of kin.
Your dad will, of course, when he tries to get you committed again, contest your living will as invalid on the grounds that you were already mentally incompetent when you made it. The thing is, you are entitled to a court hearing to determine if that living will is valid or not, and you are entitled to be present. Insist on it. Insist on a court-appointed attorney to represent your best interests at the hearing. If they put you before the court with only your dad and ignore your wish for an attorney of your own, as soon as you get in front of the judge, object. "Your Honor, I object to my father representing me. He represents his own interests, not mine. I want someone completely independent to represent my interests in this hearing." He may talk to you some more to be sure you understand what you are asking. Repeatedly insist, if he asks you and as he talks to you, that you want an independent, disinterested person to represent your interests. Repeatedly insist that your father has a conflict of interests and is representing his own interests, not yours.
You can say, before the judge, "Just because I've been diagnosed with a mental illness doesn't mean I don't have any rights. I may have to have a legally competent person to make certain decisions for me, but it doesn't have to be him. Your Honor, I have never had the opportunity to make a living will when I was considered 'of sound mind' because I was labelled as not being of sound mind while I was still a child. If mentally ill people have any rights at all, it is the right to have a specific person who they believe is not acting in their best interests removed from guardianship of their affairs. Sure, I don't have the right to ask that a new guardian be appointed every other week, but now that I am grown, even with my being diagnosed mentally ill, I should have the right to say 'not him' to a hypothetical guardian at least
once in my life. Your Honor, this is hardly an unreasonable request."
When you get your lawyer, or your Guardian Ad Litem (who will probably be a lawyer, so pretty much the same thing), tell him you believe your father has Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and that a quick Google will show scholarly articles exist showing fathers can be perpetrators as well as mothers.
Tell him that you assert that if you are able to terminate all contact with your father, and all access of his to your medical records and progress, and undergo, under the care of a psychiatrist, supervised, gradual reduction in dose to find the minimum dose at which you are stable that they will find that that dose is zero.
Have him argue that even if you are schizophrenic, your right to the least restrictive environment extends to being on the lowest dose of medication that will keep you stable. Have him also argue that the side effect profile of psychiatric medications shows that many of the most serious side effects are higher risk at higher doses, and that you have the right, as standard of care in medical practice, to be on the lowest dose of those medications that will keep you stable. Have him argue that you are fully willing to comply with the doctor's instructions as you test to discover the appropriate dose of your medications--if any. Have him offer that you are willing to keep a detailed, daily journal--once you are out of reach of your father--so that the doctor can have that much more information available if he has questions or concerns about your progress.
Reading of your plight, I see two possibilities. Either you're not sick and your father has Munchausen by Proxy, or you are schizophrenic and have the symptom of believing you're not sick--which happens with real schizophrenics and real bipolars.
Even if you are you have the right to have someone other than your father as your guardian if you want to, you have the right to the least restrictive environment and the lowest effective dose of your medications, you have the right to exclude your father from seeing you or having any access at all to your doctors or your medical information.
He really doesn't have as much power over you as he's manipulated you to think.
If you ignore his threats to Baker Act you and move out and get a job, he can't hold the threat over your head to control you.
If he does manage to get you taken in for evaluation or even committed, he can't control you anymore, either, because you can use your rights to cut him out of your life for good--if you are determined enough to go through with it and stick to it.
Children's human rights in this country are very poorly protected.
Mentally ill adults' rights are very well protected, if you know what yours are and know how to use them.
Julie
