Mom Wandering

gsanborn1785

I'm new to this site and so thankful it exists. My 71 year old mom has been battling with dementia and psychosis for several years now. She lives with my dad, her husband, and I'm about two hours away. She has taken a steep decline within the last year or so, and how has been wandering around the neighborhood and has been returned by concerned neighbors and the police a couple times now. Unfortunately we do not have POA in place and she is no longer competent to sign that, so we need to find another solution. She absolutely needs to be in MC and my dad is in denial at the severity of the situation, even though she has gotten so bad that she no longer practices basic hygiene and continues to wander.

I finally directly contacted an elder law attorney and got a petition for guardianship, which I intend to fill out and have my dad fill out to submit to the courts. I think it is the only way we can get her the care she needs, because she is refusing all care otherwise.

Unfortunately she no longer recognizes my dad and is very combative and mean, so he generally tries to avoid her but that passiveness also leads to him not noticing when she leaves the house.

I have sent him chimes to put on all the doors so he knows when she is leaving, as well as a ring alarm, and I am considering child proof door knobs.

I anticipating the guardianship process will take some time, but in the interim, I feel completely helpless in trying to help my dad deal with the current situation of her wandering. We really don't have months to wait on this but I'm not sure what else we can legally do at the moment. To note - she has not been formally diagnosed, and refuses all medical care. I fear we will not be able to get her help until we have the legal rights to enforce care on her. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all!