Her husband was moved out o the home to assisted living due to wife not being able to care for him in home. Brother of husband hired a lawyer, went to court and the state assigned legal guardianship. Wife has signs of dementia but was blatantly ignored by husbands lawyer and guardian. Step daughters tried to have her committed to psychiatric unit and was released. Daughters also tried to wipe out bank assets. Very ugly. Now the wife's son is here in the picture, has power of attorney, gladly helping mom with needs. The brother of husband counseled wife to not let her son be her power of attorney several times but she said no I trust him. Brother leaves the state and a week later the husbands appointed lawyer serves the wife and son papers of intent to seize assets and assign a state appointed guardian to wife, which leads us all to think the brother and lawyer are in this together. Also the brother is the trustee for husband. Looks very wrong to me and I feel the wife has been through enough. She does have some signs of dementia at 83 but some of it is due to stress and shock of how she is being treated.
If someone has sued to become guardian of your friend, there will generally be representation (a lawyer) assigned to her to make the case AGAINST guardianship. Her son, who is her POA, could seek out representation for his mother, if she doesn't want to have a guardian appointed. Would the son agree to be her guardian?
Has your friend had a full cognitive work up? What were the results?
Having someone who has dementia to a psychiatric facility is fairly common, especially if the patient is exhibiting behavioral symptoms like delusions and paranoia. I would take the daughters' action as prima face evidence of evil intent. By the same token, trying to have a guardian appointed is a way of protecting an elder who no longer has the capacity to assign POA. Of course, if someone is to be guardian, they HAVE to have access to assets to pay for care.
What sounds evil and ill- intentioned to your friend with dementia may actually be folks looking out for her interests...or not. The fact that she can draw a clock face and correct time does not tell us much about her reasoning abilities.
Don't stir the pot. Encourage the son to talk to all parties in a non-accusatory, neutral, fact-finding manner.
Again, thank you.
Also, if a Guardian is appointed, the matter doesn't end. The Guardian of the Estate or money matters is normally bonded, to protect the assets, and the Guardian must file annual accountings of how the money is spent for court approval. So there is oversight. So, they aren't seizing assets for anyone other than the Ward. They can only spend the assets for the Ward's care.