What to Do when your Loved One
is Mentally Incapable?

What to Do when your Loved One is Mentally Incapable?

15 June 2016

Worried about your parent making bad decisions? Incompetence comes in many forms, which can make determining what to do when an elderly parent is mentally incompetent a complex topic. But understanding more about your options is a good first step towards making the right decisions for all involved.

What to Do when your Loved One is Mentally Incapable?

Age and Incompetence

Incompetence is a very common issue. In fact, about one-third of those over the age of 85 live with dementia. Even those who are healthy for their age experience age-related cognitive decline. But how much decline is too much, and what can you do about it?

To begin, it’s worth understanding that incompetence is a legal term rather than a medical term. However, medical specialists are capable of judging a person’s capabilities, including medical problems that might interfere with their decision-making. And those judgments can be used in legal decisions.

How to Prove an Elderly Parent Incompetent

You may want to start by determining if your parent is truly cognitively impaired, and that’s often done best with the help of their GP. It’s not against the law to reach out with concerns to a loved one’s GP, but it is possible your concerns will go unheard.

Resolving the Case

If the petitioner is an appropriate guardian, the tribunal will transfer responsibility for living arrangements, medical decisions, finances, or other relevant areas. But whether or not a guardian is deemed appropriate can depend on a variety of factors, including things like a potential conflict of interests, credit history, criminal background, and so on. Those issues withstanding, many states prefer adult family members or spouses in guardianship positions.

Unfortunately, if family members disagree over the necessity of this process, or who should become the guardian, these types of proceedings can become lengthy and expensive. It can also be challenging to collect evidence of cognitive impairment that comes and goes, as with depression, delirium, and dementia. It’s often better to have these kinds of end-of-life decisions worked out ahead of time by learning how to get an enduring power of attorney.


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