Why is it so difficult to get conservatorship in CA?
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Thank you for the reminder.
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Because you are an adult and it’s ok to have an illness
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I’ve been speaking to my brother’s conservator (public guardian) and he seems encouraging when I mention being interested in taking over conservatorship if my brother moves in with us eventually. He sent me some informational packets and such. What kind of problems did you face trying to become conservator?
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I agree with Barbjng,
Guardianship will help and I am glad I did that for my son.
He is now under Temporary Conservatorship in California and he recently field for an appeal to be off the conservatorship and he was denied the appeal. He is still in the hospital and hopefully he will get the right meds.
He went through relapses several times and got better twice after 2 months Hospitalizations each time but he never get to a point of accepting meds and always had concerns about side effects.
He left home in between relapses and ended up homeless in California.
this is why I get the guardianship. it has helped me to get him conserved now in California.
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The guardianship should not take more than 10 days to be ready. The hardest part for me is to serve the order of the permanent guardianship in CA to my son since he was in and out hospitals and on streets for few months. Also, some hospitals had certain protocol for refusing to serve the patient in hospital.
Finally, I have it and it is helping to talk to hospital nurse and social worker and I was able to get him conserved in California by contacting many people ( Police, Hospital CEO, doctor where he is at now, a politician, judges in Santa Clara, DA, PD, etc…)
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My Son is staying in Hospital. he had his hearing and he did not win in his appeal.
Hopefully he will get better and the next step he will be in Locked Rehab Facility after he gets better on the right medicine.
Please keep him in your prayers.
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in California, a Family member can be a conservator through the court. in other States, like my state, it is called guardianship.
I get the guardianship in my State for my son but it was still hard for me to enforce him to take medicine. when he refused to take his medicine, I would call 911 to take him to ER. in the ER, he would take his medicine and they send him home ten he would refuse to take the medicine at home.
He left to California to appear for his court date and became homeless and in and out of Hospitals for several months.
I worked so hard to get him into Conservatorship and he is now hospitalized in California and under TCON ( temporary conservatory) in California,
it was not easy to get him into Conservatorship. I consulted with a private lawyer then contacted a Politician staff who helped him in connecting to Hospital CEO. I also sent several FedEx packages with a copy of my guardianship to couple judges ( one of them is a judge for mental illness).
I had Fill up NAMI AB1424 Form that list all the episodes that my son went though in the past 2 and 1/2 years.
I mailed the AB1424 to his social worker, the doctor, his public conservator and to the DA office and the public defender office and to 2 judges in the county where he is at now.
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calicakes,
if your brother had a history of many relapses, it would better to keep him under Public conservator ship for a while.
is he totally compliant on Medicine?
are you sure you can handle him during crisis time?
for me, it has been hard to enforce him to keep taking his medicine and Public conservator is a better option for my son at the present time.
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Check this link:
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I definitely will keep him in my prayers. That sounds very positive with the combined hospitalization and rehab. Hang in there.
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Thank you for your advice! Those are great questions. I think your son and my brother are conserved by the same office. The social workers have been a HUGE help to me and I hope they are for you too.
My brother was diagnosed about 15 years ago and there are only 2 times we know of that he has been off medication for an extended period of time. 1. When he first got sick because it took our family time to figure out why he was starting to act strange. 2. When he traveled across state lines to live with our Mom for a few years. Most of the time, he has lived in halfway homes and various board-and-care homes because our family didn’t really understand the illness or know how to care for him. I’m younger than him and I was a teenager when he was first diagnosed. For the past 10 years I’ve been living overseas with my husband and kids (military family). I recently moved back to the same area and we will probably be stuck here for a while because of my own chronic health problems.
Anyway, he had stayed with my Mom for a few years, but she’s elderly, disabled, and has some trouble taking care of herself too. She’s also highly emotional and she started accusing the landlord of stealing her stuff (no idea if it’s true or not). I believe this triggered my brother. He ended up getting in an argument with them and was taken to the hospital. He was no longer allowed back and eventually my Mom moved away with a relative and he has been the responsibility of a public conservator ever since – for the past 4 years. He has been well enough/independent enough to move out if he wanted to for the past year or 2, but no family has lived in the area until now and he’s doesn’t really know how to take the steps to live on his own (not capable of making those plans and seeing it through by himself).
His guardian always says nice things about my brother and how calm he is, but he has cautioned me to take baby steps since we don’t know how my brother will react to change. The guardian says the fact my brother has been stable at the same board-and-care facility for over a year is considered “VERY successful.” The guardian also knows I have young children and has assured me there’s no history of violence in his records at the various facilities he’s been to. The guardian said there has been a little trouble with med compliance in the past, but nothing extended. My brother has been visiting 3 days a week for the past month or so and he hasn’t put up a fuss about taking his medication (2x a day) yet. He even says stuff like, “I have to take my medication every day so it can work better.” His acceptance of his diagnosis seems to be off and on, but he seems to know something is wrong. He says, “I have an illness. I don’t know if it’s schizophrenia. I think it’s something that makes it hard for me to do stuff.” I haven’t mentioned moving in yet so I think they are his genuine thoughts. I don’t think he’s just saying these things to manipulate me.
Will my brother always be med compliant? Maybe not. Will he relapse some day? That’s very possible. I’m trying to get a crisis plan in place before we make any permanent changes. We might convert the garage so he can have his own private living space. His guardian has given me some phone numbers for emergency psychiatric services and outpatient care for mental health. He has also encouraged conservatorship over a durable power of attorney so I can have my brother involuntarily treated if I have to. There’s also a short-term residential facility in our city for mental health crises.
I did ask my brother if he was okay with the idea of me taking over conservatorship, but he said he’d rather keep his current conservator. Lol I don’t take it personally considering he has had a longer bond with his guardian than with me at this point, but hopefully he’ll be open to the idea eventually. 
“Worst” case he moves in with us and has an episode and might need to be publicly conserved again for a few years to re-stablize. I think stability and comfort is a good goal that everyone is deserving of, even if he is only capable of it for a few years at a time.
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Calicakes,
my son was conserved in Santa Clara in 2016 an he got out of it after I visiting him in July 2016 and his public conservator recommended for him to go back home. He told me that John is doing a lot better and he can go and stay with me in my state. but soon after he came to stay with me, he stopped the medicine and he got worse and left to California and became homeless for a while and then in and out of hospitals…
this time, he will conserved in another county close to Santa Clara. His public guardian is responsive to my questions and my emails.
I am hoping he gets better and stay on Conservator ship for at least 6 months to one year to get stable.
it seems your brother is older than my son and I think he will do OK with you since he is aware of what is going on with him and with your preparation and good planning for the permanent change, he will probably enjoy living with your family.
POA did not help me a lot. Guardianship works better for me especially in speeding up the process of his social security benefits and talking to social worker, nurses, doctor and also helped me in his student loans forgiveness Application.
Hoping more stability and comfort for brother when going through the new change in moving in with your family.
I think your are a Awesome caring sister and he is very lucky to have you.
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Thanks Mom2 for your prayers and I hope your son is improving daily. keep us posted of his progress…
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My thoughts - fwiw - If your brother is doing well with his current conservator, and you find you can communicate well with them, there may be no reason to change to you. Working with the conservator, you can move forward to more interaction with your brother, together making good decisions for and with him.
Adding conservatorship into the mix of your relationship can definitely complicate things. I sometimes wish my son had a guardian other than myself so that THAT didn’t complicate our relationship of Mom with Son.
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He told me he felt at peace. I’m going to remember these exact words. He also said he hasn’t seen the ACT team this week so I guess that hasn’t started yet.
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My son was seeing the same psychiatrist for 17 months, she resigned from the practice just before I needed guardianship papers signed. Her replacement psychiatrist indicated she would not complete the paperwork until she had seen my son for a minimum of 12 months. Frustrated. Any tips? 
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I guess I would try to find the previous psychiatrist.
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Thank you for sharing your experience, @CAAR2016 . My brother’s conservator agrees that a POA won’t be enough to help my brother.
How old is your son? I think 6 mos - 1 yr is a good goal. It takes time for medication to work effectively and to get stable again. I’ve heard sometimes schizophrenia gets worse with age, but I’ve also heard sometimes it gets better. Our family says brother was a little more difficult when he was younger.
I think as time has gone on my brother has learned of different ways to cope. They say brains aren’t fully developed until about 25 years old so maybe that has something to do with it. There are a lot of people suffering from schizophrenia on the other forum of this website in their 40’s and 50’s who think it seems to get a little easier to live with every year. Never give up hope!
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I agree, @Vallpen! I think with a recommendation from his current conservator and psychiatrist they could force conservatorship, but I don’t want to do that. I hope he will make the choice for himself eventually. We’ve only been reacquainted for a couple months so it is a very fragile bond. I don’t want him to be resentful. A younger sibling having so much control over an older sibling can also be demoralizing. 
I completely agree that a third party would be ideal to avoid difficult family dynamics. I asked his current conservator what his options are and if there’s any other way we could keep a third party in control, but it seems like it’s either him and my brother stays at a licensed board-and-care or he lives with us and I have to take over. The conservator said there would be a brief safety net period of 1 - 2 months where he could stay on as conservator after my brother moves in, but after that they would be required to terminate the conservatorship since public guardians are really only meant to be used as a last resort. After that, I would need to petition to assume responsibility Or not take over and risk not having any say in his treatment if my brother has a psychotic episode.
It’s actually probably a good thing that he’d rather keep his current conservator (someone he has known for the past few years), rather than being too eager to follow any relative that comes along. I don’t love his living arrangements, but he seems to be doing okay there. He has made comments that our house is much nicer, but doesn’t often complain about his house or beg to live with us. I always ask if anyone bothers him there and he says no. You would think someone suffering from paranoid schizophrenia would find lots of reasons to complain, but he hasn’t much… He occasionally makes comments about the care home like, “I didn’t agree to live here,” or that he wants to, “Live like normal.” But it doesn’t seem urgent.
So we’ll just give it time. Any changes should be made for his benefit and peace of mind, not for mine. 
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