My aunt is a hospice patient. My cousin and my husband have met with an Elder Law Attorney and are currently seeking to get guardianship for both my aunt and uncle who are in Assisted Living and are currently “wards of the state.” (Social Services stepped in last year due to my relatives' inability to care for themselves and my uncle’s refusal for assistance.)
There has been no problem getting the necessary incapacity paperwork done for my uncle, as we were able to take him to his primary care doctor. She knows all about his mental health issues, so completed the paperwork quickly.
Our problem has been “false promises” from both the hospice care staff and the staff at the facility saying they would get their hospice (or facility) doctor to fill out the forms. It's been over a month and we're getting no where. My aunt has no current primary care physician, and we're very much relying on the hospice or facility medical doctor. The patient has to be seen within the past 90 days by the physician doing the forms. The changes in the laws (for SC) require only 1 doctor to verify the incapacity, but the forms are lengthy and must be notarized. We don't know if that's the main drawback, or if the staff members just aren't pushing the doctor's to do this for us.
DSS wants to release my aunt and uncle from their custody in May, but we want to have the Probate Court decision complete before they are left with no one "in charge." The lawyer is aware of how much difficulty we're experiencing, and I'm thinking the law office may have to “step in and act” on behalf of my aunt to get the doctor to complete this task. They do have a court-appointed Guardian ad Litem who is also promising to get this last urgent form completed. The DSS agent(s) who were assigned to my relatives have changed 3 times, and we don't know who (if anyone) is assigned to their case at the present.
Hopefully, someone on this forum can give us some great advice. We're getting weary from this process, along with the past 2 years of "battles" we've faced on my aunt and uncle's behalf.
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If you are planning on moving them, you will have to stand there and insist the paperwork gets completed, they try this crap so they don't loose a patient or resident. I had to stand over the knothead that was supposed to call my dads next facility to ensure it even happened and that was after a week of promises and lies.
Sorry I have no other idea. But I feel your frustration.