Mom has dementia. She currently has a public health nurse fill her med tray every 2 weeks. She has a homemaker 2x/wk. She lets her leave early and doesn't let her do all she can do for her. Adult protective services wants her to have more care in the home. I have rheumatoid arthritis and live 100 miles away. My sick brother who was living with her recently died. I'm working w her new PCP to help medically document her symptoms. What can I do?
What can you do? As others have said, you are limited in what you can do if Mom is still considered competent to make her own decisions. You could call APS, of course, but they are already involved. I think that is good. If they can arrange for more in-home care that would be good at least for a while.
You are working with her PCP. That is good.
But this may be a case of "waiting for a crisis," as JessieB describes it. I know that is not at all satisfactory, but it may be the only thing you can do.
Maybe a lot of people do take a one-year leave of absence from work to arrange things well for their parent. Maybe. But no one in my family could possibly afford to do that. When my sister retired she took our mom in. That lasted about a year until the care needs increased, and then mom went into a nursing home. Fortunately we were able to convince Mom that these were good things to do. If she had resisted, I'm not sure what we would have done. Waited for a crisis, I guess.
Early in his dementia I told our children that their dad could not possibly live on his own, even with a lot of help. If something happened to me they should NOT let him convince them that he could manage with just a little help. Fortunately nothing happened to me, but I do know first-hand that it is not feasible for a person with dementia to live alone safely. (Sometimes it is not even safe for them to be left alone for a few hours while the caregiver shops!) BTW, at no time in the 10 years with dementia was my husband "incompetent."
Comfortable surroundings, things that they are used mean something to them more than most other family members understand. It's part of getting old. Comfort brings safety also, but yes, if she is a fall risk, due to medical reasons, better find out. If its just about home safety vs. assisted living/nursing home safety, that is even harder road to travel financially.
This is a huge responsibility. If I lived far away and had my own health issues, I might encourage the county to pursue this procedure and let them take responsibility for her care and treatment, since, it's really a full time job.
You COULD fly across the country, give up your job and your life and move in with mom. She would then treat you like a moocher who is living with her "for free" because she doesn't recognize the need for care-giving.
Or you could wait for some higher authority to take over and move mom against her will. Or you could wait for a fall or something and move her closer to you.
All the choices suck, I know.
Let APS handle this. They can arrange for the state to take guardianship if they feel she needs to be in a facility.