Reply #33: Lots of great info & suggestions in the thread, especially quakerboy's experience [View All]

[UTUSN]

Just to streamline, simplify, and consolidate:

1- There are legalities and legal terms that have specific meanings: "Mental capacity." "Mental competence/incompetence." "Least Restrictive Alternative". First there have to be diagnoses, then the legal procedures, then the finding of the court.

2- So long as there is no activity done in #1, forget about tossing around words like "dementia" and "Alzheimers." Also forget about trying to "reason" and performing "interventions." Those things are only workable with somebody who is reasonable, or reasonable enough to comprehend consequences, like all the things (below) that are going to happen if he/she doesn't agree. Plus the results of agreement usually only last as long as it takes to get rid of you.

3- Sometimes plain old malnutrition is involved. Just a thought.

4- Who is the person with the best relationship with the person, relative or not. Barring that, who cares enough to take responsibility?

5- Many of the in-home solutions will work so long as the person ACCEPTS them: Provider; Meals on Wheels; Lifeline ..... stepping on up to Assisted Living.... (the Least Restrictive Alernative, in steps)

6- So long as the person has not been declared Incompetent by a court, the person technically has the right to be presumed Competent, and if so, the simplest instrument is a Power of Attorney that will allow the designee to pay bills, sign agreements for in-home care arrangements, almost everything. Might be called "the poor man's Guardianship." It can be limited to financial management, or medical care, or whatever specified activities. Or it can be everything.

7- Guardianship is the whole monty: The caring person petitioning the court (forms can be obtained from the State; otherwise, hiring a lawyer) to declare the person Incompetent and naming the caring person as the Guardian, meaning taking some (Limited Guardianship) or all of the person's Rights away from him/her and giving them to the caring person to exercise in the person's stead. It can be Limited in all sorts of ways, just financial, just medical, or Full Guardianship, the whole monty. The person is supposed to have somebody representing him/her, AGAINST the removal of Rights, but for the best interests of the person, meaning that this attorney (appointed by the court or otherwise) might AGREE to the Guardianship. The court will require medical and psychological assessments and diagnoses, one way or the other, with the court then finding/declaring. If the Guardianship is granted, the Guardian then exercises whatever Rights of the client's, Limited or Full. If there is no relative or friend to be the Guardian, the court can appoint (really, ANYONE) but there is usually a State program.

The down side is when bad people, interested in the client's resources for their own enrichment, become Guardians and exploit the person. It is fair for the Guardian to have a fee, and all costs of the person's care come out of the person's resources.

8- Somebody said above that it was all right to leave the person to his own outcomes so long as he/she was "only" harming himself. Nope. It can get that far, but that's the point to start the involuntary solutions.