Sometimes it's difficult to tell when a client's in pain. Is he in pain because he says he's in pain? Or is the client simply seeking drugs? Wanting to get high?
Today we encountered a situation where a client who hadn't been on pain medications for some six weeks reportedly went to the emergency and obtained a prescription for pain pills.
When we told him he couldn't fill the prescription until he had an evaluation from a pain doctor, he rebelled. And he refused to turn the prescription over to staff. So, because he was non-compliant - and we knew he was going to fill the prescription on his own first chance he got - we discharged him.
While some might think this is a harsh consequence for not wanting to turn over a prescription, we also have a long history on this man. One time he was found to have filled two prescriptions when he was supposed to only have one. Another time he was found to have alcohol in his car.
Because of serious injuries this man had suffered we had more patience with him than we would with a client in good health. But after so long of seeing this man having an abnormal reaction when he was issued his prescriptions, we determined that he was probably self medicating, obtaining drugs from other sources.
And nothing is more difficult for other clients than to see someone who's apparently under the influence while they're in the program, supposedly working on recovery.
