What to do about my brother?

[kathys38]

What is the name of your state?Tennessee.

I am a 47 yr old divorced female with a 30 year old brother who is mentally and severely disabled to the point he needs to be changed, fed, etc. My 78 yr old dad is looking out for him now, but even though his health is pretty good time does go on. The mental retardation society (I think its called) wants to help after I called them and sent them all of his information. For the time being they want to send someone out 10-12 hours a day to take care of my brother. But this all leds up to the state wanting to have conservertership to me in the next month or two. I really don't have any other siblings who can do this and I am functional but mentally disabled as well living on my own. What would this conservertership mean and what type of things should I know before I go into that state attorney's office on my behalf? This is for Knox County, Tennessee

[rmet4nzkx]

Please contact the Disability Resource Center
[url]http://www.drctn.org[/url]
From what you say, both you and your brother will need assistance, and while you are functional, conservatorship should go to someone else, either ARC or DRC can help you, it is better to take care of these transitions before somehting happens to your father.

[FarmerJ]

kathy there are literally thousands of parents who are in your dads spot , they didnt allow there Developementally Disabled children to be placed in state faciltys , and kept them at home and now are aged and soon going to need to place them into someone elses care . First off If your brother is in a DAC ( day activity center ) call them and see if they have phone numbers of group homes that they get there clientele from that you can later on go see . If your brother has a social worker contact the social worker now , perhaps it is time to set it up where your brother can see a local QMRP to get a current evaluation and you could explore the idea of finding a group home firm who can split the week with your father and your brother can spend some time at each every week , where I work we have several clients who do just that , the first one stays at home monday night after DAC and friday after DAC is dropped off to spend the weekend at one of the homes that I do the maintanence in . Up here this is a common way of transitioning the client from one place to another . Also so you know many of our clients have family members who are conservator , all though if you just cant do it a local uninvolved 3rd party can do this . Do you know if your brother can do task with verbal cues , Or do most task require hand over hand to get him started , even though he sounds low function there allways is the chance that your brother can be taught to do more for himself and reach his highest level of independance through the structure offered in some group homes . any way best of luck to you .