What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
My father, 88, has macular degeneration so he cannot read or drive or do any central vision tasks. Otherwise, he is in reasonably good health, though his hearing is fading. My mother, 82, has COPD and has been on oxygen for several years. She is mentally very alert, but her strength and speed has been slowly fading. In February 2010, she took a new sleeping pill, Ambian CR, and ended up falling in the night. In a rehab nursing home, they gave her another one by mistake, and she fell again in the middle of the night in the restroom. She is all recovered from the specific falls and is more stable now than before due to extra physical therapy, exercise, etc.
My parents own an apartment in a high rise luxury retirement coop with an attached nursing home, so my Mom is living in a nursing home room and my father is living in their apartment. Their doctor fully approves of my mother living at home with 12 hrs of companion help each day. The level of care at the nursing facility leaves much to be desired, as she is assigned the custodial (warehouse) wing and spends most of her day in a 10'x10' space. The cost of the 12 hrs of companion services is a few percent more than a day in the nursing home, for much better care. (My mother is a self-pay patient.) There is some hope that Mom can work her way down to 8 hrs/day of companion care.
My father has always dominated my mother, and he is very insecure at the thought of losing control, especially in his low vision state. My mother is not strong enough now to ask for the care she needs at the nursing home, and one reason she was overloaded before her recent fall was taking care of herself while also being my father's eyes for all the tasks he could load her with. For some reason he is not rationally explaining to us, my father is blocking the return of my mother to live in their apartment. Certainly he has it pretty good with her stuck in the attached nursing home, as he can visit her for an hour or two each day and otherwise do exactly as he wishes with his life. Lately he has allowed five hours of home companion care for my mother (at almost 50% higher charge than either all nursing home or 12hrs of home care/day), but he is completely dragging his feet at any further motions to come home.
My question is what kind of legal approaches are there to getting my mother home? The reasons my father gives for Mom not being ready to move home are irrational, and would collapse if he had to answer to a judge or a caseworker. Would the court appoint a lawyer for my Mom to advocate for her when she is too weak to stand up to my father and live in her own apartment? As my mother says from time to time "I still have to live there" (with my father), but he seems to be off the rails on this, and her quality of life is directly at stake.
Any comments or insights would be greatly appreciated!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
My father, 88, has macular degeneration so he cannot read or drive or do any central vision tasks. Otherwise, he is in reasonably good health, though his hearing is fading. My mother, 82, has COPD and has been on oxygen for several years. She is mentally very alert, but her strength and speed has been slowly fading. In February 2010, she took a new sleeping pill, Ambian CR, and ended up falling in the night. In a rehab nursing home, they gave her another one by mistake, and she fell again in the middle of the night in the restroom. She is all recovered from the specific falls and is more stable now than before due to extra physical therapy, exercise, etc.
My parents own an apartment in a high rise luxury retirement coop with an attached nursing home, so my Mom is living in a nursing home room and my father is living in their apartment. Their doctor fully approves of my mother living at home with 12 hrs of companion help each day. The level of care at the nursing facility leaves much to be desired, as she is assigned the custodial (warehouse) wing and spends most of her day in a 10'x10' space. The cost of the 12 hrs of companion services is a few percent more than a day in the nursing home, for much better care. (My mother is a self-pay patient.) There is some hope that Mom can work her way down to 8 hrs/day of companion care.
My father has always dominated my mother, and he is very insecure at the thought of losing control, especially in his low vision state. My mother is not strong enough now to ask for the care she needs at the nursing home, and one reason she was overloaded before her recent fall was taking care of herself while also being my father's eyes for all the tasks he could load her with. For some reason he is not rationally explaining to us, my father is blocking the return of my mother to live in their apartment. Certainly he has it pretty good with her stuck in the attached nursing home, as he can visit her for an hour or two each day and otherwise do exactly as he wishes with his life. Lately he has allowed five hours of home companion care for my mother (at almost 50% higher charge than either all nursing home or 12hrs of home care/day), but he is completely dragging his feet at any further motions to come home.
My question is what kind of legal approaches are there to getting my mother home? The reasons my father gives for Mom not being ready to move home are irrational, and would collapse if he had to answer to a judge or a caseworker. Would the court appoint a lawyer for my Mom to advocate for her when she is too weak to stand up to my father and live in her own apartment? As my mother says from time to time "I still have to live there" (with my father), but he seems to be off the rails on this, and her quality of life is directly at stake.
Any comments or insights would be greatly appreciated!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?