What to do about credit card debt for my 81-year-old mother?

My mother has a quite a credit card bill racked up. She is currently unable to take care of herself and is in the nursing home. We were advised by the nursing home to just ignore the bills as they couldn't collect from her anyway. The one bill is $17,000 plus. The minimum payment is now over $2000.00.

She is staying at the nursing home, with them taking all of her SS and pension and the state medicaid program is paying the rest of her expenses. Recently I got her bill in the mail. Addressed to me. I am not on her card, but I was years and years ago.

Am I now responsible for this debt? Does the nursing home writing a letter to the card company take away her responsibility to pay? She gets $30 a month now as her spending money.

I'm not sure what I can do about this...