Will assisted living take my alcoholic father???

In some cases. Only after a treatment program for withdrawal that is a slow one with medication to prevent serious side problems of DTs and only with a locked facility. My brother's ex is in one that is cottage setting with private room, but the cottage itself is locked so that prior experience with this gentleman taking off to purchase his own alcohol is prevented. This is a question for the facility you are interested in. In most cases you are looking at difficult placement. A serious alcoholic will use listerine, will use hand sanitizers in the absence of alcohol. I wish you luck.

"Illinois Law About Possessing the Marital Home:
There are two ways that a person can force his or her spouse to leave the marital home in Illinois. A person can file a petition for exclusive possession of the home under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. The court may temporarily evict a spouse from a home during divorce proceedings under the IMDMA if the other spouse shows that the physical or mental health or well-being of the spouse or children is “jeopardized” by the spouse remaining in the home.

"The second way for a spouse to obtain possession of the marital home during divorce proceedings is to file for an order of protection under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. To obtain an order of protection, a person must show harassment or threat of future abuse from his or her spouse. The court will also award temporary exclusive possession of the marital home if the risk of threat to the petitioner outweighs the hardships the other spouse has to go through by leaving the home. The court presumes that the risk of harm to the petitioner is less than the other spouse’s hardships, so many believe that the IDVA more readily grants a spouse exclusive possession of the marital home than the IMDMA." (source: https://illinois-family-lawyer.com/blog/articles/can-make-spouse-leave-marital-home-illinois-divorce/)

As you have already seen, your mom's "concern" for his well being has only allowed his problem to rage on. She is an enabling co-dependent and really should go to Al-anon as others have already wisely suggested. I wish you much success in getting help for your family.

This may be a time when the police can take him out under a Baker Act hold.

You may want to call your town’s non-emergency number and see. That way, you can be prepared, if you end up calling, if it applies.

If it does, they can hold him for 3 days, as they assess his needs.

Someone here may know more about this.

Medicare does not pay for ALs or Longterm care. Its a health insurance. And no, an AL will not take a raging alcoholic. They are not staffed to handle someone like him or have the resources to dry him out. He needs to be in a clinic.

If he becomes violent call the police and have him removed. Tell them ur afraid of him and he is not allowed back.

I'm very sorry this is happening to your family.

It's incredibly difficult to deal with. I was talking to the husband of a client about a month ago and he said to me very frankly: "it's been three years of hell." The falls, the rages, the false allegations (every fall blamed on the husband - she pitched headlong down the stairs, blind drunk; when she came to with a broken arm she was convinced it must have been his doing, and she was desperate to convince everybody else of it too). This woman wasn't supposed to be mobilising unsupervised at all, she was supposed to be bedbound - the bruising and the sutures were horrific. But daily, when we weren't there, she was going down the stairs, out along the path in her nightwear using her walking frame, and down the street to her local store - for vodka. Amazing what you can do with a strong enough incentive. And demented as all get-out; but absolutely lucid when she wanted to drink, or wanted to deny it.

The trouble is that by this stage it isn't really your father's choice any more. By now he probably is very ill, physically and mentally.

As your disabled brother is resident in the home, I wonder if there'd be any additional support available to help protect him. What does your mother want to do? Does she want your father out of the house and committed to hospital?

He's not old enough for Medicare, so his medical expenses are entirely on him or on Medicaid, which you'd have to apply for. I'd have your mother contact a divorce attorney, simply because she may be wiped out financially if she has to pay out of pocket for his care forever. She has responsibilities to your brother who can't help his issues, so she needs to protect his interests first and foremost. She could divorce your dad and still care about him (if that's even possible at this point), but she needs to protect herself and your brother.

Also, call his doctor and just ask questions about how admitting him to some facility might work. They'll probably tell you that your dad is an adult and if he doesn't want to be in a facility, no one can't force him to go unless he's incompetent.

This brings you back to the divorce option. He's made his decision to destroy his life (yes, I know it's a disease, but still...), but you, your brother, and your mom aren't required to go down in his ship.

A resident of Assisted Living would have to play by the rules, so if he were to agree to GO there in the first place, he'd have to behave. That's not likely, since most out of control alcoholics don't play by ANY rules. Medicare doesn't pay for any Assisted Living, so the entire cost would be on your dad anyway, so even if he agreed to go, he'd have to pay for it

You are looking for an answer FOR your father. HE is the person who needs to WANT to find an answer to the problem HE is suffering from.

If he went to rehab & checked himself out after 1 day, calling it a 'prison' and saying he's not a 'criminal', he's deeply in denial and doesn't want help.

You know all that, from the comments you've made, yet you're still looking to place your dad somewhere and make him someone else's problem. I'm not saying that in a 'snarky' way either, I'd probably be trying to do the same thing, if I were in your shoes.

I just don't think that's the right approach here. I think the right approach is for you and your mom to give him an ultimatum: he either gets clean and sober somehow, or he moves out and stops ruining your lives. Your mother can file for divorce. If that decision winds up killing him, so be it. It's HIS decision that's killing him, in reality, not the decision YOU are making BECAUSE of his addiction.

I love you dad, but I love MYSELF more, and this behavior is NOT OKAY. Period.

This is tough love, an intervention so to speak. You can 'feel bad' for dad all you like, but in the end, he's killing you and your mom with this addictive behavior which is how it works. You are both having heart palpitations; your hair is falling out, nobody is sleeping while he's going about his merry way peeing in the house and falling down drunk. What's wrong with that picture? His CHOICES are creating a living nightmare for you and your mother, and that's not okay.

Go to Al-Anon meetings yourself right away, and take mom along if she will agree to go. They will help you see that none of this is YOUR fault and they will help guide you to taking care of yourselves now. Alcoholism & addiction is a disease that destroys EVERYONE'S lives, not just the person suffering from the addiction, and Al Anon addresses that fact and helps the family cope with the issues that arise from it.

Please, allow yourselves to take the help and advice they will give you. That's a great starting point to clearing out your heads and getting direction in what to do here. You can't go it alone, nobody can. Addiction is bigger than your father and he is the only one who can admit that fact, and make the decision to choose his family over the bottle.

I hope he does.

Good luck to you.

Al-Anon is terrific. I would participate in this group.

You will hear how others handle their situation and you can share your frustrations with people who truly understand what it’s like to deal with alcoholism.

Would your mom consider divorce, and splitting up their assets?

I’m so sorry that this is happening to you all.

Are you a member of Al-Anon?

I’m not sure how this is handled but an alcoholic cannot quit cold turkey! It’s dangerous.

Has he ever done rehab? Would he consider it?

Wishing you all the best.

He would need to go to rehab first.

Medicare does not pay for nursing homes or assisted living. Medicaid would pay for nursing home if he qualifies. I don’t know about the alcohol.