Anyone have experience with calling APS in Texas (Berls501 follow-up question)?

EMTs actually have a term for it. Right to Rot. Fair warning, I’m amazed they sent someone to clean in texas

I am in Texas, and called APS on my mother. She had re-emerged from being estranged for me for 10 years. She was post hospitalization and still experiencing some lingering hospital delirium. We dipped a toe into the situation and checked her house. It was hoarded squalor. Full of cockroaches, a hole in the ceiling. Kitchen sink full of rancid backed up water. She’d been without power, but an aid helped her get it turned back on. She did have running water. But the house was the dirtiest house I’ve ever seen in real life. She had already been on the APS radar- her PCP office called. But she refused to open the door to them. So consider that your father might end up doing that. They have to be willing to participate and let APS into their home. I called myself and also convinced her to just see what they wanted. I told her I did not get the impression that they wanted to just take her. They really only seemed concerned that she had food in her house and kept asking me about that. She was also never found mentally incompetent, and cleared up to her usual level of “just “ Mental illness. APS came and helped us clean up the property. They sent a handyman worker to fix the hole in her roof and her wall and a broken window. They sent a six person cleaning Team who worked three days on her house and got it to a more normal condition. They wanted her to get counseling and maintain the house. The reality was she was just over the financial limit for her Medicaid home care worker.So there is no govt paid caregiver. I have tried to help her around the house, but she has just messed it up again. I go weekly and wash dishes, remove trash, wipe what I can get to in the bathroom. It’s no longer filled with cockroaches because we had pest control treatment done a few times. Her finances are better because she got a raise from my father’s passing and got his Social Security. They had been divorced since 1976. The big thing with APS is that they told me she still had mental capacity so they really could not do anything else. But I never felt like I was going to be in trouble or anything with them. At least the caseworker we got just seemed to want to help. Her case has been closed a long time now.

If you are conflicted on APS, call the Area Agency on Aging for your dad’s county. Just Google it. They can help you sort through his options and know a lot more about what local APS would have to offer vs whatever else you see as an option, although I wouldn’t be so quick to discount the attorneys opinion as others are. APS may have fewer options than Area Agency on Aging. They aren’t Santa Claus but they do operate with pretty strict guidelines that they may be forced to implement when backed into a corner.

Co is 8 for medical coverage for elderly. Texas is 35. But here’s the thing, much of what is factored into elderly care your dad may not appreciate. He isn’t worried about how expensive it is. He already knows he isn’t paying. He isn’t concerned how many facilities there are. He is in the only one he is interested in. There are no great medical cures that are going to make him self sufficient. He is not going to thank you for interfering in his life no matter how you dress it up. Look up ADLS, IADLS. See which ones you can help him with from a distance and which ones you can hire help for him. An interesting enough care pack coming in on the regular could keep neighbors checking in. He would be eligible for Medicaid care in his home if staffing is available. It’s probably as plentiful as it is in the NH. Aging Care would know this. They would in turn call APS if they can’t handle. You could buy him a little more freedom this way.
He isn’t afraid of being alone. He isn’t looking for a daily bath. You seem to know that your dad is more about his own space no matter how humble.
Find a home health company if he has insurance. The nurse will see him once a week unless he has a wound and then they will come more often. An aide will come a couple of times a week to bath him if he will allow it. She will wash his sheets, does he have a washer? If not send more sheets, bed pads etc. shop at the thrift store. Less trouble for him unwrapping. Therapy can come as well. Go through these services first. A camera is good if he has Wi-Fi in the area. Probably not. You might be able to pay a neighbor a few bucks to look in on him and give you a call. Decide how much you and sis can contribute and make it count. Your father will see you as a blessing if you help him in this way rather than trying to disrupt his “utopia”. I would pay extra to not ever have to walk into a nursing home or assisted living. If you feel compelled to do that, just go volunteer at one for a few months while dad is trying life on his terms with a bit of help from his wonderful daughters. And you are wonderful to want to help him. God bless you.

It sounds like you’ve talked to of the stereotypical sleazy southern lawyers. I would not trust anything he says.

If Dad ends up living with you or your sister, it will completely destroy your life, and Dad will be no happier than he would be in a facility. Let the state take over his care.

He’s going to be a miserable and angry old man either way. Better that be professionally managed.

If APS comes out to investigate a senior with dementia living in a squalid trailer with no running water, not eating or having little food TO eat, losing weight, and incontinent, they will more than likely remove him from those unsafe living conditions and place him in managed care. Dad is going to be sad and angry no matter what. The question is, do you want him with you sad and angry or having the state taking over and placing him, making him sad and angry?

I haven't seen anyone particularly in Texas, Berl. But do know that you can SPEAK with APS without calling them in. When they find out that your father is rational and in control of his own bills, bill paying, living alone, getting and eating food, they may agree to do a wellness check (if you wish it) but will otherwise likely not intervene to insist he be transported to an ER.

"In general" if APS does a wellness check they will speak with the senior ALONE. Not that they won't speak with you ALL later, but they will be sure to discuss with Dad alone. And if he comes up rational they will not/cannot transport him to an ER for a 5150 admit (72 hour hold) for evaluation.
Evaluation is the ONLY way you and Sis would have any power, and that being IF he fails and IF a court will grant you temporary guardianship.
Guardianship for an uncooperative elder is, as I mention last posts, something you will none of you thrive in, I am thinking.

If this attorney does NOT want APS in what DOES he/she want? Because if he is suggesting guardianship that is a 10,000 process he will stand to GAIN by and that would be your reason to look carefully at his advice.
The other reason I advise against guardianship other than an uncooperative, thankless and furious senior on your hands is that you cannot get out of it (a court won't let you unless you can prove you, yourself, are ill). So you are STUCK and you are responsible.

There is so much involved here. I am 82. Over my career as an RN I saw much of both APS and CPS. I think if anything they intervene too seldom. I would trust them over an attorney.

Down to final outcomes here, the fact this is ongoing now about a month? If Dad isn't cooperative and is at ALL rational I think no court will take his rights from him. The government is LOATHE to strip a citizen of his rights, and in TEXAS? Double that.

I don't know if you have contacts on the ground there where your Dad is concerned. Without running water many are going to say that this is unsafe. But in Texas, I wonder?

I will say one thing here. I think that you should not put a lot of money into an attorney on this. I think none of you, Sister, you or your Dad will have a good outcome no matter the amount of cash thrown at this. I think your father would rather be DEAD than have you make his decisions for him. And I don't know but that he isn't right in that.
I can't know how badly his living conditions have deteriorated. I can readily understand your wanting to make this better, or even OK for him; I just don't know if you CAN.

My heart goes out to you, but I think were this me I would be turning this over to APS and the Department of health, and giving my Dad my phone number, and any who could or would check on him. And then I am stepping away from what is CLEARLY A TRAGEDY. In times gone by Dad would have been institutionalized against his will for certain. Was that better. Quite honestly, for an old Texan? I am not certain.

I wish you more luck than you can imagine. Know you can SPEAK with APS anonymously. They are a call away. You can give them the basics and ask for their advice. You can tell them that for now you are too fearful of what may happen to you and your father should the wheels begin turning with no one at the steering mechanisms and cannot give you name at present for that reason.

Good luck. Keep updating us. You are in the hearts and minds of many here I do believe.