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My sister has been taking care of my mom for over a year while staying at my mom’s house after my dad passed away. Meanwhile my sister has her own household and would like to move my mom there instead. Mom refuses! Yet, our mom is bed bound and not an able body. She’s completely dependent on us feeding her, changing her diapers and sponge baths. she has kidney and heart disease. She’s not able body! Suggestions please! My sister sacrificed enough and it’s time for my sister to get back into her own household. Thank you!

You lay it all on the line - mom, it's sister's house or the nursing home because sister needs her life back and you can not be here alone. If she still won't budge you need to stand strong and start the process to get her into a facility.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
Thank you! Yes!! It’s hard bc you want them to decide but not when they aren’t thinking rationally.
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She has a choice, go to her daughter's house to be cared for or go into a LTC facility. Give the woman her options and then let her choose.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
Right and she chooses to be in comfort of her own home. My sister has her own home and sacrificed enough. She needs to be back in her own home after a year of being at my mom’s home.
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Your sister will have to lay down the law. If your mom is competent no one can force anything. So your sister will have to say, and you should be there and say so as well:
"We cannot go on caring for you in this manner: as of the date of __________we will not return to this house. Here is the number for 911 and here is the number for Adult Protective Services (APS) for you to call. Otherwise you can agree to move into Sister's house NOW."

That's it. Clear as a cleaned window.
No argument. No nonsense.

Now I will say this, I would not be taking this unhappy woman into my own home and making it thereby her home. She will not be leveraged out of it. With diabetes the onslaught of ills, even up to and including gangrene in the feet and amputations that go on a bit at a time over and over, will be her new norm. To me this isn't doable care for one person, but that has to be her choice as an adult to make.

Caring for a non cooperating elder is to be frank impossible.
You must do as you see fit and I couldn't wish you more in terms of the very best of luck. I am so sorry for you all.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
You can’t leave a bedbound person like that with just a phone and leave. She’s impossible at times bc of her dementia. We do live in a state where we as her children do have obligation to protect and made sure she’s care for otherwise we can get in trouble with the APS abandoning /neglecting her.
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No, you can't force mom to move if she's mentally competent. What your sister can do though is go back to her own home herself. She would have to get social services involved first though by contacting a SW from the state, telling them she is unable to continue as is, and work to find alternate care for mom. I'm sorry, it is a difficult situation.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
My mom is bedbound. She’s 100% dependent for someone to do everything for her. She’s on hospice. We can’t leave her home alone bc we will get charged with neglect. My mom will have 2 choices my sister’s home or NH. She will most likely opt for the 1st choice, staying at her house isn’t an option.
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Please know any familial responsibility laws are rarely, if ever, enforced. You will not be held legally responsible for mom’s care or poor judgment. In your shoes, I’d stop dancing to her tune. The person who’s bedridden in need of care simply doesn’t not get to call the shots. It’s likely a mistake for her to live with sister, but since sister is apparently insisting on it, meet her at mom’s and pack up mom’s stuff, load her as safely as possible into a car and down the road to sister’s house she goes. No more discussion or cajoling her into it. If a bedridden woman somehow gains superhuman strength to fight you both off, then leave her, yes, alone, with a phone, until she decides to move where help is available. No more of this reasoning, begging, refusing, etc. just act. Sometimes what’s in everyone’s best interests just needs less talk and more action
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Tell her " either she goes to the sisters house or a NH . " End of story .
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olddude Dec 19, 2024
Quite frankly, I wouldn't even make sister's house an option.
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Hire a caregiver and tell your sister to go home. Mom will figure it out in a few days.

Your mom is bed bound and dependent. She doesn’t have a choice. Don’t give her a choice and don’t expect her to be like well ok.

You have to make this happen. It’s so rude of your mother to allow her daughter to be away from home for over a year to deal with her.

If your mother a narcissist and was she abusive when you all were growing up? Does she have dementia?

Tell your mother she either moves to your sister’s or she goes to a care home.

I also think your sister needs a several month break between now and receiving your mother at her house.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
That’s the issue…hiring a part time - 24/7 caregiver is NOT easy to find for a bedbound person!! Many agencies wants around the clock live in care and about 300-400$ a day!! Unfortunately, my mom’s needs are beyond more than helping to serve her meals. 😕
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Sounds like she would qualify for LTC with Medicaid and Mom's SS as the funding. My MIL is in LTC on Medicaid in an excellent facility 3 miles from our house. She's had excellent care there since 2019.

You start by getting your Mom assessed: either by her primary physician or the admissions director at a good, local facility, one that has Medicaid beds (don't put her anyplace that doesn't accept Medicaid). The facility rep can make a house call.

You can fill out the Medicaid application for her. Once submitted it takes 3 months or less to hear whether she's approved or not. She can go into the facility on private pay and then Medicaid pending. This means she gets first preference. Outsiders often are on waiting lists.

Are you planning on taking shifts with your sister if you move your Mom into her home? If not, what's the plan to prevent her from having burnout, which may happen sooner in her own home? If your sister has "sacrificed enough" maybe she stops being the only care solution for your Mom now. Whether your Mom wants it or not... the caregiving arrangement has to accommodate the caregiver, not the receiver. Your sister, at a very minimum, needs a very long break before moving your Mom in, if that what she chooses going forward.
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Romi00 Dec 19, 2024
Hi, my mom is on hospice for over a year and working with company. She does go on respite every 60 days but as you know as a caregiver isn’t a lot of days…although we pay ourselves extra days. She’s on hospice for kidney disease. Unfortunately, we can’t do Medicaid’s since my dad before he passed the house in trust. Which still needs couple years before it’s protected. It would cost everything and more to get Medicaid at this point. So speaking to an attorney it’s not worth it since they did a trust for the house instead. It would cost way too much! So Medicare it is! I am the POA. Don’t get me wrong we are happy our mom is still with us. I just think it makes sense for my sister to get her life back by being back in her house and take my mom with her. My sister has sacrificed her job by Quitting to take card of my mom. My mom does pay her so she has money for her mortgage big of course it’s big what she got paid having a job and no insurance! Only through the state!!

I currently live close to my mom and will go there to help out. As POS, I take care of all the bills, etc. In the beginning everyone rotated nights. After a year of all of us doing so, the siblings will help here and there but too much with our kids, work, own households. I did mention to my sister that by her moving mom into her house she may not get as much support from us due to distance may get burnout even more! Bc she lives further for everyone’s houses and jobs! She doesn’t want to put mom in nursing home since she is bedbound. My sister worked in couple nursing homes and seen too much!! Only the best dog out mom.
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I feel for Mom. Yes, I placed my Mom eventually in a NH before that an AL. She had dementia and adjusted well to both situations. I can see why Mom does not want to go into LTC. But she needs some empathy for her daughter. She has to travel to get there. She gave up job and her family life for Mom. She needs to mske life easier for your sister.
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lealonnie1 Dec 19, 2024
They don't want to move mom to LTC....just from her home to sisters home.
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I’m concerned about your feeling that you “can’t leave her home alone bc we will get charged with neglect”. If this is correct, then ANYONE can be FORCED into providing 24/7 care just because the person wants to stay ‘at home’. That simply can’t be right.

I suggest that you contact APS now, get them to visit, and ask their advice. M may even be more willing to accept things when she hears it from APS - strangers in a government body, not from daughters she has always pulled rank on.
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mstrbill Dec 19, 2024
Yes, this is correct.
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