Q: Who determines if a person with Dementia is able to continue to make decisions such as POA choice?
I would like my husband's grandmother to come live with us her son (husband's uncle) does not want that. I would like to get medical POA, however, she has moderate dementia. There is no POA paper work in place. He would like to put her in a nursing home, we are willing to add on to our home to care for her. I am a NP with a dementia certification. How can I care for grandma legally. Can her son choose to put her into a nursing home against her will even if she continues to live independently and refuses to go. Can I just move her in with us?
A: She can make her own decisions until a probate court appoints someone to be her guardian. If she designates a POA, then the person named can take action on her behalf. But another family member, like her son, could challenge it in probate court and ask to be guardian. The judge would then decide. So until then, she gets to decide where she wants to live, and she makes all her own decisions, including granting a POA and executing documents for her estate plan. But a family member could accuse someone helping her of taking advantage of her. And her POA, will, and other estate plan document could be challenged in court, and the judge would have to decide her mental capacity and her level of impairment at the time she executed those documents, based on doctors evaluations. So you might want to get those now. She should talk to her estate planning attorney or use the Find a Lawyer tab to retain a local estate planning attorney to assist her.
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