My Mother Needs Help To Get The Care She Needs

I’m fundraising for my mother, to help bring her to Alberta to get her the help she needs and to get her into a nursing home.

The cover photos are from exactly one year ago to now.

Unfortunately, my mother has suffered some underlying mental health issues which were triggered by covid. 7 years ago my mother suffered a fairly large heart attack and was unable to return to work. My mother still had a mortgage on her house, and unable to work to pay her bills on her house she sold her house and purchased one in Merlin Ontario, just outside of Chatham. When covid hit and we were all told that people with compromised health issues may die if they contracted covid my mother was afraid to leave her house, especially with having a defibrillator. In turn, my mother's neighbours would bring her groceries and my mother turned to social media for interactions and communication with the outside world. Unfortunately, this allowed my mother to be completely vulnerable to some serious scam artists, which led my mother to sell her house and give away over $300,000.

My mother became homeless after nearly a year of being homeless and wire transferring the sale of her house to a mastermind scam artist the Public Guardian and Trustee deemed my mother incapable to manage her finances and I was appointed her Guardian and Trustee, but it was too late my mother had by this point given an away the entire sale of her house. My mother only now has her pension. She had continued to send money to these mastermind scam artists to which I had her apprehended back in October of 2022. After a month and a half of being apprehended, she finally agreed to begin treatment for the mental illnesses she was suffering from and was monthly receiving an injection to stabilize what was diagnosed as manic and borderline bipolar disease.

Once my mother was deemed healthy to be discharged the emergency housing social workers began to work with my mother as she had nowhere to be discharged too, she was placed in a motel in Blenheim Ontario until a better option was available. My mother resided in this motel room from November of 2022 where she was unable to properly prepare meals for herself, let alone walk to the store as it was winter and she was 74 years old. Finally, in April of this year, the emergency housing worker assigned to my mother was able to find her a one-bedroom apartment to move into. I was so happy for my mother at this point of her recovery, fully aware and regretful of her decisions that led to this horrible situation that was now my mother's reality, seeking treatment and attending monthly appointments for her injection, and now having the opportunity to rebuild her life she moved into this one bedroom apartment.

I was told by her case worker that the apartment was going to be fully equipped for her to fully begin her recovery process and put all the pieces back together.

Over the past few months since my mother moved in I would speak very regularly with her, I’d ask her about the apartment and she would say she is missing a few essentials, I would ask her case worker and receive a different response. My mother's physical health began to decline, yet she continued taking her monthly injection that her case worker would drive her to.

My mother's psychiatrist saw her each month yet said nothing about her physical health or the decline in my mother's personality or physical health.

A few weeks ago my mother's caseworker expressed she felt her injections were making my mother very flat, and requested that her dosage be decreased by half.

About a week and a half ago my mother had fallen and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The doctors in the emergency department recognized that she was very unwell, they ran blood work and my mother's thyroid was off the chart greater than 150, when a normal thyroid level is 4. My mother had been overprescribed anti-psychotic medications by the psychiatrist who had seen her every month and was negligent to recognize or act upon the dramatic de-conditioning of my mother.

My mother had become so flat from the injections and malnourished from not being set up properly at her apartment with adequate cookware that she lost the ability to care for her physical health and stopped taking her physical health prescriptions. Not one of the professional workers expressed the alarming state of my mother's health.

Over the weekend of July 21, I was contacted by the doctor in the medicine unit at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Hospital and was advised I should come to see my mother. I flew out on the red eye this past Monday, followed by a train, bus and taxi to get to her. When I arrived I nearly fell to my knees. I could not recognize my mother, her skin was so dry, her eyes were crusted over, her lips were so dry they were falling off, she has lost an immense amount of weight, completely unexpressive and weak. I moisturized her arms and skin with the lotion I had in my bag, I put lip balm on her lips and told her how much I love her and that I'm sorry I did not come sooner. I fed her lunch and took her outside in a wheelchair to feel the sunshine and breeze on her skin. I stayed and fed her dinner. I brushed her teeth and cut her fingernails so she felt fresh and comfortable before I left for the evening.

This is all because of being overprescribed to psychiatric medications and not being monitored properly.

Right now the goal is to get my mother's thyroid levels back to a healthy state so that she can begin to regain her strength. Then once she is medically healthy I am wanting to bring her to Alberta where I reside so that I can make sure she is being cared for probably in a nursing home.

Unfortunately, my mother's pension is all that she has left after being taken full advantage of by mastermind scammers.

I’m asking for the help of those that may contribute to donating so that I may pay the remaining balance of the retirement home I’ve found for her that can take her in within the next month when her physical health is good enough to make the trip from Chatham to Alberta.

This is a very sad and complex situation and any help to help my mother find peace and happiness for her to live out the remainder of her life and be close to me with the care she needs would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance