My elderly father has fallen prey to several scams but still has his wits about him in terms of functioning. There are no obvious signs of dementia as of current, but he seems to communicate with scammers too often and it puts his safety at risk and the safety of those around him at risk.
He fell in mid-October at his home and laid on the bathroom floor for a few days prior to being discovered. When he was discovered, he was immediately transported to the hospital. He was disoriented the first few days in the hospital. Hospital staff encouraged me to apply for guardianship due to scammers finically exploiting him. So, I applied at the county courthouse.
At first, I thought I alone would be capable of being the guardian. But then I realized my dad never listens to a word I say to keep himself out of danger. So, I bought this to the attention of social workers at the hospital. The social workers told me at the time that they recommended a co-guardian, and they would have several co-guardian candidates contact me. I would be able to vet them and determine who I felt could best perform the duties.
Instead of the several potential co-guardian's calling me I had only one potential co-guardian call me just a few days prior to the guardianship hearing. I did not have much time to vet her, and she ultimately ended up a co-guardian with me once the judge made a ruling on guardianship.
Once she was appointed co-guardian, she was insistent on selling my dad's house despite not even reviewing his finances yet. She verbally noted that she wants to take away his phone.
I did not necessarily agree with her strategy, but she is insistent. I have attempted to get in contact with attorneys to discuss other options but once attorneys in the county she is in learn of her involvement they want no part of talking to me. I have reached out to other attorneys in proximate counties. They either are not interested or are not willing to work in the county where the court is. As for legal advice I feel like I have reached the end of my rope.
He is currently in a nursing home for rehabilitation. I spoke with a social worker and discharge coordinator at the nursing home yesterday. They suggested the co-guardian was derelict since my dad would be released from the nursing home soon and she had no plan for him to go elsewhere. More specifically, an assisted living facility since his home is currently a mess due to the accident (i.e. the fall).
I was finally able to reach the co-guardian via phone. She stated she’s on vacation at the end of this week and I would have to help find my dad and put him in an assisted living facility myself. But I have no experience doing this nor am I comfortable in explaining to him how to get into the facility. He is obviously very resistive to the idea. The co-guardian is telling me to find the facility and take him there and not to explain anything to him except that this is the next step in the process.
So, in summary I cannot find legal help and I am not getting a lot of help from the co-guardian who’s supposedly more experienced. I don’t disagree that my dad may need to be in assisted living, but I don’t want my dad to think this is permanent. Selling his house may give him this idea. I also don’t want to be cold by telling him that “this is the next step” and limit communication between him and the outside world by removing his phone.
The co-guardian is correct that you just find a facility for Dad and place him. Its no longer what Dad wants but what he needs. And since this will be permanent, you sell his house to help pay for his care. If your were given Guardisnship its because Dad is not capable of making informed decisions. You now make those decisions for him. The roles are now reversed. You just do what you need to do. Thats how I got thru caring for my Mom. If anything got done its because I made the decision to just do it. Yes, take the phone away. If you chose to keep it, change his number. Get a programable one where you can putvin the calls allowed to come in, and the ones he can use going out. Have his credit frozen. Make the bank aware of these scams and not to allow any large amounts goingbout of Dad's accounts.
If you are placing Dad into a memory care or Assisted living, if paying privately you should have no oroblem finding one. LTC too, private pay opens up a room quicker than trying to get a Medicaid bed.
New York State has co-guardianship law:
Co-guardianship
A guardianship relationship where two guardians are appointed to have full decision-making power over certain areas of the ward's life.
Court appointment
A judge will appoint a guardian if they decide it's in the ward's best interest. The court will decide whether to give the guardians independent authority or joint authority.
Guardian's authority
The guardian will receive a court order that outlines their responsibilities and authority.
Bonding and training
In some cases, the guardian may need to obtain a bond to ensure the proper management of the ward's assets. Non-professional guardians must complete a training program.
I just spent about an hour online researching "co-guardianship". It's quite unusual and was fascinating to me. Plus I admit to avoiding election day in general.
From every single thing I can find it is best for the two in these very unusual circumstances, especially when one is court appointed, to come to agreement.
BUT, if they cannot come to agreement there is one and only one way to address it.
THAT'S the COURT.
When agreement is NOT reached it is a simple matter of the guardians taking it to court. Filing and waiting and filing and waiting and filing and waiting. What an education!
And after all of that: the court will make the decision.
Unless you want this to be ongoing and to spend most of your time in the courts filing actions (you will learn lots about the law for sure), I would suggest trying really hard to come to some agreements here. The court Fiduciary is gonna be WAY ahead of you in how to do all this.
What you have, when you think about it, is kind of a war of two parents over a minor child after a divorce.
You can spend all your time and money in court, or you can come to an agreement about what seems best for poor dad.
Good luck.
That is, to be honest, impossible.
I think there is here a basic lack of understanding because what I think has happened is that a court appointed Fiduciary is currently acting as guardian because, perhaps, you had a poor idea of how to function as guardian.
I do not know nor have ever in a long career heard of anything like a "co guardian" in the manner to which you describe.
Nor have I ever heard of an attorney paid refusing to see someone because there is a "co-guardian".
Really sorry, but your story isn't making sense to me.
What IS clear is that your father currently has a court appointed guardian.
SO...........................
1. When the nursing rehab center calls you you should tell them the guardian's number. Tell them that they must work out discharge plans with the guardian, and if they feel there is 24/7 care needed that they should discuss this with the court appointed guardian.
2. If your father is discharged unsafe to function you should FIRST call the guardian and tell her he isn't safe. If she's not responsive, call an ambulance for transport to hospitial. If they will not transport, call APS to report as "Emergency Senior at Risk and guardian not responding". If they are non-responsive call the police.
Good luck.
Again,
I have never heard of a "co guardian" appointed by a court.
I have never heard of an attorney who will not see you when you are willing to
pay for his or her time.
Something is missing here; I cannot fathom what that missing piece/pieces might be.
By the way, given your father now likely has a diagnosis of dementia (which you do not mention) as you cannot have ANY guardian without that; courts do not rip a citizen's rights from him unless he cannot operate for himself--I AGREE the home should be sold and the funds should go for your father's care. That is up to the court-appointed guardian to decide. And in absence, given vacation, she should notify the rehab when she will return to place your dad. Meanwhile he will likely become private pay, which is costly to be certain.
As you can imagine, filing again a court appointed guardian is going to be very costly, almost impossible. And I do not know the reasons there IS a court appointed guardian. Only the court knows that.
Given I have to way to know what the situation here is legally, that's sadly the best I have to offer in terms of suggestions.
I described above that the woman was appointed a co-guardian aside me. She was appointed by the court; so, you never having heard of it is a moot point here. As I describe above, I lack knowledge on how guardianship works so the idea behind having a co-guardian is to gain direction from a person who is supposedly skilled and has experience doing this.
I got my Mom a RAZ Mobility phone after her flipphone broke and she was making inappropriate calls. From an app on my phone, I control who can call her (her grandkids, her family, certain stores, neighbors and friends) so, no scammers can get to her. The phone uses large photos of the people who she can call and I can control what hours of the day she can call them. She was able to learn how to use this new phone, but not sure your Dad will be able to. You won't know until you try it.
I'm not sure what you thought a co-guardian would add to the situation. She seems to now just add a layer of complexity. She's not going to be your go-fer to do your guardian work for you.
I think I would see if I could get rid of the co-guardian arrangement but then you are "it" in terms of problem solving. This forum has lots and lots of info to help in that area.
The likelihood that your Dad will fall again is now higher. He is also continuing to lose his executive functioning (and this is why he falls victim to scamming). I'm assuming he had to take an extensive cognitive test to assess the level of his impairment for guardianship. This should give you a good idea why having him live on his own is really not going to be safe for him going forward. With cognitive decline/memory impairment he no longer is able to make good judgments about his wellbeing. Dementia also causes people to lose their ability to have empathy for others, so he won't care that he's running his guardians around ragged trying to appease his now unreasonable expectations.
Assisted living would at least give him social exposure and opportunities for activities. He may actually be a candidate for MC, so please ponder this. No one ever likes the thought of this type of drastic change, but it's necessary to keep our LOs safe when they are a danger to themselves.