It worries me and the family. He will buy something one day and not want it the next. He bought a ladder for $300 and couldn't figure out how to use it so he wants to give it to a family member instead of returning it. I cleaned my closet because I gained weight and gave some clothes away. the next day he cleaned out his closet and wanted to give away expensive clothes that fit him. He has never been a overly generous man to others financially but now he keeps trying to give large amounts of money to the children and grandchildren to the point that they are uncomfortable. yet he will not part with some unless things like old sheets or broken tools. he was scammed by 3 different people last year 1 being a doctor for over $5200 and it is now in the attorney general's hands. this I was prepared for. I have power of attorney now. I am lucky in that we have an honest family but I am afraid that he will be taken advantage of again I seem to be undoing his finances daily and have informed banks and credit card companies to check charges above a certain amount. I feel that I am doing okay in this line. my question is does such a change in behavior indicate an progression of his disease. if so should I prepare myself for his needing home care or assistant living? and how do we get the keys away from him he is dangerous on the road.
As for his driving that's a whole other issue. Since he has dementia he shouldn't be driving. You know that. When I determined that my dad shouldn't be driving anymore I called his Dr.'s office and spoke to the nurse about it. I wanted the Dr. to tell my dad he shouldn't be driving since my dad wasn't listening to me. On my dad's next appointment the Dr. told my dad that he'd have to stop driving and my dad agreed to it.
As your husband's illness continues to progress you may want to be ready to bring in home care or move to an assisted living facility. It wouldn't hurt to get some information on these things now so you can begin to think about the future.
If you have POA, he should not have access to any substantial financial assets. Sadly, that means locking up check books, jewelry, credit/atm cards, bank statements, cash and items of value. The risk of him giving things away to someone who won't return them is too large. Is he home during the day? Scammers are all over the place. Not a day goes by without a story in the news about seniors losing large sums of money to scammers. You need to protect yourself and him and your family.
Don't expect him to return the ladder, load it up and return it your self. Ditto on other purchases. Take away the car and the assets and it will stop things from coing into the house. Hire a companion for when you are away.
I did find that whenever Dad used the guilt-card by saying he was going to drive, I reminded him that if he had a serious accident he could you sued, and everything he and Mom had saved for the past 70 years including the house could be taken... then where would he and Mom live. That usually stopped his thinking of driving. And on the times that didn't work, I told Dad he would need to call his insurance carrier and tell them he was back being the primary driver. I knew Dad wouldn't make that call.
As for the money spending, any chance of hiring an Accountant/CPA to take charge of the finances? If hubby wants to buy something you can pretend to call the Accountant and then say to hubby that the Accountant said there's not enough money in the monthly budget for that.
Take away credit cards...destroy them if you have to. He will continue to do irrational things. Let bank know he is not to take out money. You are protecting him as well as yourself. He is no longer capable of making rational decisions.
Malachy2
If your father did not do the charges for that 200k debt, then Don't Pay It. He shouldn't pay it off, nor you. Just because they're family doesn't mean you shouldn't press charges for fraud, etc... If they have no problem doing this to their own father and grandfather, why should you have problem reporting them? If you don't, they will continue to charge things under your father's name, increasing his debt.
Your father's debts is HIS debt if he was the one charging it. Not yours - unless you signed paperwork saying that if your father is not able to pay for it, then you will. Or if your name is also on the loan, credit cards, documents, etc....
Warning: Although you did not ask about anything else regarding giving away possessions, I warn you to gain guardianship asap. My family chose to not do that when our LO with dementia reached the same stage. In a delusional state coupled by a hostile outbreak, after courted/preyed on by a hospice group earlier on the scene for my mother, he changed his will, willing ***everything*** to hospice. No attorney nor anyone else was ever able to successfully contest the will. Had guardianship been invoked when obviously needed, this would have never happened. The family adamantly agreed that was not needed nor desired. I will always regret I did not do it myself, for his sake and ours. Sending a big hug to you. Stay strong.
I did this with a client who believed she could drive, even though I had her car repaired three times for a total of $7.5K. The driving instructor and I cooperated so that the lessons went on for weeks ands weeks.
Finally, the driving instructor told her that she should not drive any longer. By that time, her interest in driving has waned. Then I disabled her care.
Confrontation around the driving issues makes it worse, IMO. One needs to be clever, especially if the affected person is clever or aggressive.
Also immediately lock up everything of value and items that you treasure. If you don't have access to a security deposit box, then rent a self-storage unit for a short time until you can find a secure place. Be sure the storage unit is in a safe neighborhood and use tamper resistant lock. Also move stuff when your husband is asleep or away from the house.
Most importantly, you must gain control of your assets, especially cash and anything that can be liquidated easily. Cancel as many credit cards as possible or if your credit score is high, then take them out in your own name or have them sent to your attorney--you need a good one ASAP. Other poster offered excellent advice about POAs and guardanianships. Find an attorney who can help you ASAP.
If there are guns in your house, take them to the local police station ASAP. Find out what your state's procedures are for turing in weapons of any kind as well as ammunition. If this applies to you. this can be a real hassle. But be sure you get receipts from the law enforcement officials where you turn the guns in.
Also get rid of all flammable liquid, propane gas tanks, gasoline storage containers around your house immediately. This includes any flammable liquid, paint thinner, brush cleaner, paint remover, etc. In fact, get rid of anything caustic, including drain cleaners.
If you have sharp kitchen knives, chef's knives, cleavers, etc, then you should lock them up or hid them, This could be a pain, but it is better to be safe rather than sorry.
If you have not unplugged your range, then I suggest you consider that option. Find a plumber who can help with a gas range if your have one.
Lastly, get rid or hide matches, lighters or anything else that can start a fire.
You may think that my suggestions are extreme. But safety is where the devil in the details really counts.
Good luck and stay strong.
Yes for the dangerous driving, you marry want to make a secret police report and have your local police watch for that car and tell them who drives it. You can also alert your local BMV about the risk along with the local highway patrol. These are some very smart moves I would make. When you make these reports you definitely want a license plate number and a full description of the car along with who drives that car along with that driver's description. As long as that driver has a valid drivers license along with proof of insurance, chances are very likely they will continue to drive even when it's not safe to do so. What you want to do now in case you run into any problem in taking him off the road is to see what kind of legal protections you can have over your assets such as putting them into a trust or an LLC, (depending on what kind of assets you have.) taking legal action to protect your assets now while you have that chance is the smartest thing you can do. That way, you can't lose your assets if your husband happens to wreck the car and hurt or kill someone. I would talk to anyone you feel you can trust, even if that person happens to be a trusted lawyer about putting your assets into a trust. That way, all of your assets are out of your name in case something major happens at the hands of your husband while he's driving. Yes, compensation will definitely be required if it causes an accident, but it should only come out of his pocket and not anyone else's. That way, it will help him to see the consequences of dangerous driving if he must cough up some money to pay for damage caused by him.
1. Get legal POA + Guardianship in place.
2. Get a Doc to document that he is incompetent to handle his affairs.
3. Stop and close out all Credit Cards. Outstanding loan balances become instant and taxable income upon the death of the person who signed for them. Family then has to choose whether to pay income tax on that borrowed money, or, repay the loan balance.
4. Notify his banking institutes that he is no longer able to manage his accounts, and, the PAO is now in charge. There might be some things the bank has to do, regarding new signature cards, etc.
5. If he is still getting around doing things, he could have a small allowance, only on a daily or weekly basis.
6. If someone is incapable of handling their affairs, the are also incapable of driving a vehicle safely anymore. People could be harmed or killed.
Disable his car if it's still at the house: can hide keys, disable mechanical things under the hood, or remove fuses.
Could put the car up on jacks in the garage.
The Licensing bureau can be called to make sure he fails a senior drivers test, that way, "it's their fault" he lost his license, instead of yours.
7. If there are weapons in the house, remove them, or disable them.
I removed a bolt from a rifle, making it unusable; but simply took the pistol with us when we left, to prevent the elder from using them. Had to send the bolt back to my cousin later, so he could use the rifle again.
Guns are a good thing when living in a rural location, BUT...if the person there has become unable to make rational decisions all the time, they shouldn't be around weapons, either.
8. If there are medications in the house which can be used to overdose on, or might become additive in effects when someone also uses alcohol, take those from the house, or lock them up. Make sure the Doc has a letter in their medical file describing the person's habits regarding drugs and alcohol, and, if the person has ever threatened suicide, or had behaviors which can be made worse by alcohol. This is important because Docs need to know, in order to properly prescribe other medications.
And, when the Doc knows that the elder has substance abuse issues, _and_ is mentally deteriorating, the Doc might find it easier to make the full statement in the chart to declare the elder incompetent for living alone, driving, handling their estate, making decisions.
9. Document everything, daily. Keep a diary or a calendar you can jot down highlights of his activities, things said, behaviors. This could literally save you from litigation later. It could also help get him bumped-up on the waiting list for a facility, if needed, to help show he cannot be properly cared for at home anymore.
10. Once an elder is declared incompetent, the POA takes over fully, and, that action prevents anyone else legally conniving to get the elder to change their wills, estate plans, etc.
Hope you can get him worked around to being safe...and that you keep safe, too!
One more thing you can try if and only if it happens to be safe to do so is to see if you can block the car in. Let's say the car is in the garage. Let's say you can put your car right outside of the garage door, blocking the car in. To minimize the risk of any damage to your car from a fender bender, park very close to the bumper of the car belonging to the dangerous driver. If the car happens to be out in the open, I have someone parked very close to the front bumper as well as the back bumper, this is a two person job. The idea is to safely block the car in so the driver cannot get out. What you needed to do next is follow through with the other tips by involving the authorities and the DMV, but once again, don't do anything to the car or the keys because again, this could put you in physical danger if he becomes violent.
We went thru something like that with my uncle, a chronic alcoholic with multiple vehicles, multiple guns at his place.
Sis and I tried scrambling the keys, which slowed him down some.
We also tried calling the local PD to report him driving under the influence, but, they didn't seem to care a bit...just let him drive around. Not even a ticket.
But I really liked Uncle's solution for stopping G'ma from driving [she had Alzheimer's], by arranging a rigged driver's test at the Licensing agency....he called to make sure they would flunk her on the testing, and they did that.
OF course, she would have flunked the driving portion anyways by that time.
But calling ahead to arrange it, was more safety layers, to make sure the license was taken away and replaced by an ID card that 1st trip to the agency.