Can I take over guardianship of my grandma?

1 answer | Last updated: Nov 03, 2012
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Q
An anonymous caregiver asked...
We believe our grandmother is a victim of emotional and financial abuse. Our aunt and her husband are her caregivers and have also neglected our grandmother by not bathing her for two weeks, not feeding her, and not paying attention to her. Our grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer's and is now in a wheel chair has begged us to remove her from my aunt's home. We have tried to take her with us but my aunt and her husband will not release her. What can we do or where can we go for help?
 

Answers
20% helpful
allfiredup answered...

You need to pursue this as a case of Elder Abuse! The NCEA (National Center on Elder Abuse) website should help you find local resources to help you and advise See also:
How an Adult Guardianship, or Conservatorship, Works
you how to proceed- http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/ncearoot/Main_Site/index.aspx

If you haven't already, immediately start a record/file to document every detail of this situation! Your perceptions and observations are obviously very important, but they carry much more weight when another party can validate and/or support them to a judge. Document everything your grandmother says to you and be sure to note the emotions that she projects (or even that you perceive) when she says anything- such as 'fear' or 'desperation' in pleading for you to get her away from your aunt.

Any visible signs of physical abuse or neglect should be photographed immediately and authorities should be notified. Financial abuse is the most common sort of Elder Abuse and it's usually the easiest to prove...if/when you gain access to financial records! If you are truly concerned that the financial abuse (aka- theft) is happening, you could always try to get the bank to send copies of previous years bank statement detail for your review...if you pretend to be 'her'....

 

 
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