In a nutshell: Mom is only 77 but abuses prescription drugs and alcohol. She's been Baker-Acted twice and has done 5 rounds in a Behavioral Health Center during the past 15 months. She uses a walker. She does not have dementia but makes poor decisions and has very erratic behavior. I am an only child. My mom has no other family, no friends. I am at the end of my rope with her. She can't live safely at home but at this point she's not "incompetent", she makes poor decisions and tries to inflict her misery on me as much as possible. She does not live with me and never will but has residence in same neighborhood. She's pulling the "you owe me for your childhood" card. She's ruining my life. I am POA. It's been advised that I become her "guardian" legally, but I don't want to take responsibility for her due to her poor decisions & erratic behavior. It's been suggested that maybe I check with getting her under state guardianship. I just recently heard about this. With her house and her savings, her net worth exceeds a half-million, so I don't want to open this up to vultures. Any advice is welcome.
A state appointed guardian takes a small percentage of the assets for their efforts and when that is almost gone they apply for Medicaid for the patient. I believe at that point the state pays the guardian. They have a responsiblity to make sure the finances are in order. It may not be the investments that you would chose, but the money is safe. Best of all, you can visit if you like, and walk away when you want. No strings attached.
I completely support you declining the role of POA and asking APS to take over guardianship when they can prove incompetency. If you know who her attorney is who drew up the papers, you can call the office and ask what they would like you to do since you are resigning the POA appointment. They may ask you to sign a paper in their office - ask if there is a charge first. If needed, you can write it up yourself, mentioning the appointment of the person's POA dated, etc. Get it notarized, and you can send it Certified, return receipt requested for about $5.
You cannot handle her, obviously. I actually moved out of state when I could not take mthr's abuse and it was a blessing. You might consider moving, the farther the better, to get away from her. I would begin by having my mail forwarded to a local PO Box. The cheapest place is at the post office. Your mail will be secure and no one else can access it! When you move, you want to forward from this box to another box. This way you can leave a forwarding address, but it is not your home.
You can't change her, but you can change how you react to her. And an appointed guardian takes on these cases for pay, so they are paid for their trouble. You have the right idea!!
I would get some legal advice and go from there. I am also in Florida.
With the resources available, I recommend you accept guardianship and place your mother in a locked MC where she will only be able to get her prescriptions as scheduled from a nurse and no alcohol. You can have limited contact or even no contact by checking on your mother using the facility's security cameras. When I visited my father in MC, I would leave anytime the conversation went south - Sorry Dad but it's not good for you to get so upset so I'm leaving now.
For me, the stress of not having any voice in my parent's care or any right to review how resources were being expended would be greater than being the actual guardian and employing a case manager or account to help me manage her care at one remove.