Advice With Legal Issues

My 21 year old step grandson is living in a house on my property, right next to another I am living in.

Not being blood related, and him being an adult, what "rights’ do I have as far as participating in his personal business, and especially his medical issues?
Should something happen to him that requires emergency treatment, how can I ensure that I will be notified and be able to have a say in his treatment - especially since he is really not capable of making those kinds of decisions on his own?

I don’t want him to be at the mercy of a bunch of strangers who, more often than not, are only concerned with what kind of insurance a patient has and when it will stop paying for treatment.

I can’t remember what it’s called, I’m sure someone will say soon.

But, there’s something he can sign, like an advance directive type thing, that says you can talk to his doctors and make decisions for him when he’s too ill to make them himself. Otherwise, even parents don’t have any rights once their kids turn 18.

There’s also a power of attorney type thing so you can pay his bills or make other legal decisions for him when he can’t make them for himself.

I need to get the same types of things done when my son is more stable and more willing to agree to stuff like that.

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This site has good Psychiatric Advance Directive information and a state by state guide: http://www.nrc-pad.org

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Great! TY for the link . I’ll read through it some more later today and discuss it with my grandson.

For legal questions and mental health issues - I recommend you try contacting this group - they will usually answer any questions you have and are experts in the issue:

Treatment Advocacy Organization:
http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/

TREATMENT ADVOCACY CENTER

200 North Glebe Road, Suite 801
Arlington, Virginia 22203
Phone: (703)294-6001

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Great question! I’ve also wondered if their is a group that offers grants for legal help with MHMR as well. It’s very expensive to get guardianship or similar when having a loved one who is schizophrenic :frowning: