Normal Rob
Well-known member
Ok, this is a niche,complicated and difficult subject, but I have nowhere else to turn to so I’m testing the collective power of NSC to help. Bear with me, it needs some background details to set the scene.
My cousin, a single parent who lives near San Francisco, contacted me the other day, in what I can only describe as an act of desperation. 2 years ago, her mum (my aunt), moved from Chicago to live with her and her daughter following the death of her husband. At the time it seemed like a good solution. My cousin needed help with childcare, my aunt needed family for emotional support. They share a small 2 bed apartment, meaning that my cousin and niece are now having to share a room.
In the last 2 years my aunt has started drinking heavily, sustaining several nasty falls over this period, most notably both a broken arm and broken back. She suffers what my cousin describes a prolonged ‘dark moods’ taking the pain of her loss out on my cousin and also saying that life has treated her terribly due to both her husbands prior long term illness and that my cousin also suffers from a lifelong medical condition. To me, and I’m no expert, this is chronic depression. There is also the possibility of vascular dementia as my aunt has heart failure but has refused to get it sorted despite the possibility of a pacemaker being fitted. She drinks to deal with both emotional and physical pain, and is usually drunk when my cousin returns from work. Sadly even the child has now noticed the situation they are all living in.
Added to this, my niece is growing fast, and needs her own room, and my cousin needs her space back to live her life. It cannot go on like it is..
My cousin and I have always been close, despite the distance, and she has turned to me for help in this dire situation. So now, due to my complete lack of knowledge of social care, healthcare in the US, I'm turning to NSC to see if anyone can offer advice of who she needs to speak to. I assume that some kind of assessment of my aunts condition is required, but I have no idea how to do that in the UK, let alone the US.
It would be easy to say that my cousin needs to sort it out herself, but she is desperately trying to hold onto her job in order to keep her apartment and a roof over her daughter’s head. She will ,of course, do what she can but she needs help. Any previous attempts to tackle the situation with my aunt have ended in nasty confrontation. I’m willing to approach my aunt on the situation (though this could only be done by some form of online social media cam) , but I need some background knowledge on what support would be available to her if we can persuade her to seek help.
If anyone has any kind of understanding of health and welfare support in the USA, I’d really appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks.
My cousin, a single parent who lives near San Francisco, contacted me the other day, in what I can only describe as an act of desperation. 2 years ago, her mum (my aunt), moved from Chicago to live with her and her daughter following the death of her husband. At the time it seemed like a good solution. My cousin needed help with childcare, my aunt needed family for emotional support. They share a small 2 bed apartment, meaning that my cousin and niece are now having to share a room.
In the last 2 years my aunt has started drinking heavily, sustaining several nasty falls over this period, most notably both a broken arm and broken back. She suffers what my cousin describes a prolonged ‘dark moods’ taking the pain of her loss out on my cousin and also saying that life has treated her terribly due to both her husbands prior long term illness and that my cousin also suffers from a lifelong medical condition. To me, and I’m no expert, this is chronic depression. There is also the possibility of vascular dementia as my aunt has heart failure but has refused to get it sorted despite the possibility of a pacemaker being fitted. She drinks to deal with both emotional and physical pain, and is usually drunk when my cousin returns from work. Sadly even the child has now noticed the situation they are all living in.
Added to this, my niece is growing fast, and needs her own room, and my cousin needs her space back to live her life. It cannot go on like it is..
My cousin and I have always been close, despite the distance, and she has turned to me for help in this dire situation. So now, due to my complete lack of knowledge of social care, healthcare in the US, I'm turning to NSC to see if anyone can offer advice of who she needs to speak to. I assume that some kind of assessment of my aunts condition is required, but I have no idea how to do that in the UK, let alone the US.
It would be easy to say that my cousin needs to sort it out herself, but she is desperately trying to hold onto her job in order to keep her apartment and a roof over her daughter’s head. She will ,of course, do what she can but she needs help. Any previous attempts to tackle the situation with my aunt have ended in nasty confrontation. I’m willing to approach my aunt on the situation (though this could only be done by some form of online social media cam) , but I need some background knowledge on what support would be available to her if we can persuade her to seek help.
If anyone has any kind of understanding of health and welfare support in the USA, I’d really appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks.