During the past three months, my mother has written more than $1500 in checks to family members.. Despite knowing that my mother has psychiatric and financial issues, they cashed the checks. I talked to my mother last month and told her that the large gifts needed to stop because it could interfere with her current or future eligibility for Medicaid benefits.
Today I discovered that she had written checks for another $500. Both checks were cashed this month. One of the checks was to my adult son--I'd already told him to stop accepting money from her. The other check was to my niece's mother (she's not my sister-in-law, so excuse the convoluted description). I had emailed my niece last month to tell her to stop accepting money from my mother, and to contact me if she needed anything financially.
My niece lives outside of Florida. I normally contact her via email, mainly to update her on my mother's health. I sent her and my son an email when I discovered the transactions (it was 4 am). In a nutshell, it said that they should be aware of my mother's mental issues and that she is living on a fixed income. I asked again that no one cash checks from her, and stated that I would contact the appropriate authorities if they did.
What are my next steps? I am going to contact Elder Care Services tomorrow, and possibly her bank. I was also thinking of contacting the Elder Abuse Unit in the state where my niece lives. I'm also thinking of calling each of the people in question. However, I'm much too angry to do that today without exploding. I discarded the idea of talking to my mother about it again--either she rejected my advice or her mental state makes her vulnerable.
Any other ideas on how to proceed? I really feel at a loss, and I don't want my plan of action to be influenced by my anger or frustration.
