Blackmail
V. Exert pressure on someone through threats
E.g. 'You can't have her back until you agree to have carers.'
The story starts like this, social work called asking for my mum to agree to put my granny into a place in Buckie for assessment.
My mum discussed it with me and the rest of the family, I said I didn't think it was a good idea and didn't want her to go. It was only for two weeks, but she has dementia. They say you shouldn't take a dementia patient out of the routine they're in and they're used to. Taking her out of her home, and routine for two whole weeks? Seemed stupid.
Social work called again, and listening to him on the phone while he talked to my mum, I could tell he wasn't going to take no for an answer. She eventually said yes.
When she came off the phone, I told her I wasn't happy about it and even less happy at the fact she'd been pressured into saying yes. She came back with, "It's fine. I've got a while yet, if things change, I'll just call him back and say I've changed my mind."
The "while" she was talking about turned out to only be a couple of hours. This was Friday, by late Friday afternoon, she was booked in. By Monday, she was gone.
Two weeks came and went. There was to be a meeting held on the Tuesday, the day I was due to fly out to Florida, and because the meeting was on Tuesday, it meant that she wouldn't get out until late Tuesday, possibly Wednesday. That worked out quite well, because it meant that my mum could take me down to Glasgow without having to worry about my Granny getting home or anything. But still, it was over the two weeks we'd agreed to.
