Legal Advice - Elderly Care

Factual Questions
1

Okay, here’s the situation as I understand it, though my mom is actually the one in the middle of all this:

My grandfather is incapable of caring for himself, both mentally and physically. For the past year or two, he’s floated between his home and assorted convalescent hospitals (and the occasional real hospital, as he’s fairly fragile and prone to fractures and such). My grandmother, however, is an evil shrew, and refuses to pay for any outside care, even though we suspect she could. She owes large sums of money to many of the hospitals, and no new hospitals will take my grandfather anymore. The type of care he needs is something that could be provided by my grandmother, but she doesn’t care enough about him to bother. In addition, there’s stong evidence that she abuses him (both mentally and physically - we witness some of the mental abuse first hand), so it’s in his best interest to have outside care, and stay in some sort of home for the elderly.

When I say we suspect my grandmother could pay, it’s based on previous knowledge of my grandparents’ assets, and the fact that my grandfather was turned down for MediCal because they have too much money. However, she refuses to let anyone see the papers that reveal their assets, even my mom. Likely, she knows she could pay, but doesn’t want to fork over the dough.

Anyway, those are the basics. My mom is looking into gaining power of attorney over my grandfather, and gaining at least partial control of his assets, so that she can make sure he receives sufficient care. However, the home he’s currently in will be kicking him out in a week (because my grandmother won’t pay them), and he’ll be heading back home, where my grandmother can more easily abuse him.

So, all you lawyers out there - what do you recommend? How difficult would it be to gain control of my grandfather’s assets, given the situation? How do we go about it? How much would it cost? Thanks for any help you can offer.
Jeff

2

Well, IA certainly not a L, but is your grandfather mentally competent? If so, have you talked to him about all this, and what are his wishes? If he’s mentally competent, it’s going to be difficult to impossible to do anything against his will.

If he isn’t, you’re still going to have a fun time proving that your grandmother is not acting in his best interests. If you post some more details, I’ll try asking my mom; she’s not a lawyer either, but is a paralegal and has a lot of experience dealing with these issues. She’s helped draft elder care legislation in Illinois, and once served on a national board for nursing home residents.

3

There is a fair amount of information about California elder laws at http://www.elderabuselaw.com/ . The lawyer who runs it has represented my mother, and she is pretty happy with him.

Good luck.

4

Eva:

He’s not mentally competent, unfortunately. We’re fairly certain that we can prove my grandmother isn’t acting in his interests. She lies to the staff at the hospitals, she demands he be released to her care against their recommendations, and there’s the evidence of abuse. My mom is going to be getting documentation testifying to all of her antics from the assorted hospitals. As I said, it’s just a matter of the time involved. We’re confident we can come through eventually, but until we do, my grandfather’s life is going to be hell. When my grandmother isn’t around, he talks about how she’s “mean to him”, and he cringes whenever she reaches towards him. Anyway, any additional information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

ENugent:
Thanks for the link. I forwarded it to my mom, hopefully she’ll find it useful.
Jeff