Getting Ma help.....

The day I decided to try to get my Ma professional help for her paranoia was the day my life began it's turn upside down.  I spoke with her Doctor who explained that inpatient care was the quickest and most likely the best way to help her, so I contacted the places he recommended to see what they were all about.  I settled on the one that the Assisted Living place recommended as it was closer to where they were living so Pa could visit easily.  She needed pharmaceutical help, and they needed to start with getting her off what she was on, and get her on new ones that would help.  This was NOT a fun experience.  A psychiatric hospital can be a scary unsettling place, especially for someone that only understands why she is there for 15 minutes or so at a time.  The facility told me that in order to have her admitted, I needed a Mental Health Power of Attorney, OR Legal Guardianship.    Since I only had a General/Medical Power of Attorney from Washington State, where the laws are quite different, I was stuck in the mode of obtaining a Legal Guardianship.  Thus the battle began.....

DIGRESSING on purpose here.... this is where you RUN out and make SURE you have a Mental Health Power of Attorney on your loved ones.  Arizona requires this document, as I am sure other states do.  I am researching what states require this document and will post that information on a future blog or fact sheet.

I researched online the Legal Guardianship, and spoke with a couple of law firms about this.  It seemed like something I could quite easily do on my own being a self service type of person, so I downloaded and completed the forms I needed and off I went to the Courthouse to file the papers.  Total cost self filing, less than $800.00.  Much better than the $2500 I had been quoted by the law firms.  This money is (according to the court clerks) supposed to come from the person's estate.  At this point I did ask Pa to pay for this, and the additional copying fees and expenses and he wrote me a check.  All was well at this point.....  Pa understood to the best of his ability why I was doing this.  His anger over not being able to take care of it himself was transparent, but I explained that I was not over-riding his ability to "take care of Ma", I was assisting him in it.  That seemed to smooth the anger waters.  We discussed this many times, as 15-20 minutes later any conversation you have is forgotten.  Can be frustrating, but I have to overcome that frustration or I cannot move forward.

I gave the hospital the filing numbers they needed and a copy of the paperwork.  They needed to complete the medical part of the paperwork.  IF you are not good at completing paperwork and following up on everything involved, I would highly recommend finding a competent reasonable lawyer to advise you on this.  I missed a couple of things, and luckily the Court Appointment Lawyer for Ma was able to fill me in on what I needed to do.  Whew..... that really helped. 

Your loved one will get assigned a Lawyer, and cross your fingers that you get someone as competent and understanding as the one Ma got.  He has been a lifesaver throughout this process.  Normally they need to interview their client one or two times, show up in court with their recommendations and that's it.  NOT so lucky in Ma's case.

At this point, Pa's children were looking into the Legal Guardianship for him as well. I had sent them the links I had used for the paperwork and they were completing the forms as well.  At least that is what I THOUGHT they were doing.  This is when it gets interesting... hang in there with me.....