How would you deal with a mentally ill neighbor?

[Ivy Mike]

mJim,

I tried telling Wally that Debbie was gone. He tried to kick my door in.

I am done playing nice. The authorities can do their job at this point and attend to his mental health. I pay the federal government enough and my state and local government enough...they can make sure a mentally ill American citizen and military vet gets the help he needs.

 

[ilbob]

Do not tell him "Debbie doesn't live here." That will just make him angry. Either keep the door shut or do as I suggested, tell him "Debbie's not home right now. Can I take a message?"

Do you not understand the meaning of delusional? He goes next door to see Debbie because he thinks Debbie is there. No, it is stronger than that - he KNOWS Debbie is there. He does not care one bit what someone tells him, to him Debbie is there.

A delusional person who is off his meds is not someone you can explain anything to. They are just not capable of rational thought about the things they are delusional over.

 

[rantingredneck]

Interesting question.........

Your local Dept of Social Services should have an Adult Protective Services section (or equivalent, not sure what Nevada calls that).

Call them and make a report. Tell them everything. Tell them the police have been involved.

Call the police back and tell them you have made a report to APS. Follow your APS phone call up with a written letter, or email to the person you spoke with, copied to the Director of your local Dept. of Social Services and the police officer(s) involved to this point. This both creates a written record of the report (phone calls can be ignored) and makes the person taking the report take it more seriously. APS/CPS workers see the worst side of society daily and they get jaded fast. What you see as a crisis for this person may be seen as routine by the APS/CPS worker you talk to. Be prepared for that. You may get frustrated with the lack of or slowness of response and may have to be persistent. The most important thing is to get this on record with APS. IF they get involved, they can get this guy the help he needs. The trouble sometimes is actually getting them involved. A lot of ugly out there for them to deal with. (I've done this a few times, can you tell?)

 

[green country shooter]

Having spent a good deal of time around Alzheimer's patients I do indeed know what "delusional" means. My suggestion won't work with all of them. I did make some other suggestions. Nothing will work with everyone. There is no magic bullet for this sort of problem. Try one thing, if it doesn't work, try another.

 

[conw]

Let's not diagnose the guy. He could be lots of things: psychotic due to drug or alcohol use, some variant of schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, dementia due to other causes...

The best thing for OP to do is keep his distance and let others handle it IF he can't go through the family. Which, if this guy is this out of control (trying to kick down doors) isn't necessarily going to work at this point.

 

[The Tourist]

Let's not diagnose the guy.

This is the best advice yet.

Dealing with this issue is tantamount to handling any issue of condition yellow. And like the transition from yellow to orange, we must make good decisions.

For example, when a pipe breaks at your house, you call a plumber. If the CPU craps on my Harley, I call Ryan.

What's wrong with calling 911, and simply stating, "There's a troubled man on my property who may injure himself or others. Can you send professionals trained in this field?"

The cops aren't stupid, they deal with drunks, addicts and jumpers every day.

Good heavens, we're going to film this guy, tape record this guy, shoot this guy--all because he's sick. He doesn't lose his enumerated rights just because you don't understand the situation.

 

[joop]

haven't much to contribute but to those who are just replying without reading the whole thread op said that it was revealed by neighbors wife that the guy is schizophrenic and refuses to take meds.

 

[rainbowbob]

Good heavens, we're going to film this guy, tape record this guy, shoot this guy--all because he's sick. He doesn't lose his enumerated rights just because you don't understand the situation.

We're not diagnosing him. The wife says he is a diagnosed schophrenic off his meds.

Vidoetoaping him or tape recording him when he comes on the OPs property is not violating any of his enumerated rights.

Even shooting him would be within the OPs legal rights if he presents a very real and imminent threat.

Avoiding e latter is one of the primary goals of getting this guy back into treatment.

 

[easyg]

Just allow him to "break in to the house" and then bust his knee with a baseball bat because you thought he was a dangerous intruder.

That should slow him down....and make it clear that you don't want him in your home.

 

[Blues Brother]

well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do....... you can convince ONLY the old guy that your nuttier than he is. Start putting things on his doorstep addressed to Debbie. Do strange things, Go buy a bunch of stuff at a yard sale and put it all out in his front yard at night. see what he does. on garbage day in your neighborhood, get up REAL early, and go collect all the garbage on your street and put it around his garbage cans, then call him up and ask why he has so much garbage, tell him your the garabe company and you cant fit all that garbage on the truck and he will have to call his local police dept to dispose of it. and ask him why if he eats that much food to produce that much garbage why he isnt 500lbs. and then, go mow his lawn, plant some flowers in his yard....... if passers by ask what your doing, you could just say your being a good neighbor and helping the old fella out. Hey there is nothing wronge with helping an elderly neighbor with some lawn chores. have pizza delivered to his house. call there and ask for Debbie, and ask when she will be back. Have a female friend call his house and say she is Debbie and tell him to quit calling Call him up and say your the IRS and want to know why Debbie hasnt paid her income taxes in 127 years and see what he says.


(I am new here, and dont know what type of humor goes on here, but this is meant to be a joke! so please dont take offense to this anyone. I have a odd sense of humor. )

 

[A man with a gun!]

Laugh all you want. I had a nut job living next to me for awhile. His thing was to come over and flip the main power breaker killin all of the electricty for my house. When I'd walked out to turn the power back on he would shout at me to get off of his land.

Once he took a swing at me and ended up on a 72 hour hold. But all in all he wasn't much of a threat.

Well, I had several old satellite dishes. I mounted them on the side of my house pointing them at his house. I even made another "dish" with a huge stainless salad bowl with a funky tripod mount. Then taking a few cardboard shoe boxes and the paper rolls from toilet paper, I made a couple phony "cameras" and pointed them at his house. Those "cameras" sure looked awfully cheesy all wrapped up in duct tape!!

But these silly measures worked on the guys paranoia. I'm sure he didn't know if I was listening to him or beaming rays at his house. He moved soon afterwards.

 

[easyg]

Buy a super-soaker and hose the guy down every time he comes on your front porch.

 

[Blues Brother]

yea, fill it with purple kool aid too.

 

[Jeff White]

I think we've posted enough stupidity in this thread to last for a while :banghead:

Once again I remind you all that this is the Strategies and Tactics Forum. The rules are somewhat different here then in the rest of the subforums.

Jeff