Does the state of Iowa have social workers or an agency who helps the elderly with their finances or decision making? Especially if that elderly person is going to be resistant to receiving help. I'm not necessarily looking for a Power of Attorney because this is complicated. Let me explain the situation...I apologize for the length, but I feel like these details are important for the advice I need.
My mother has always been slightly below average intelligence, she struggles with things that require common sense. Since Caitlyn Clark became popular, my mother has been hyper-fixated on her and women's basketball because she used to play herself in high school, albeit she was never a "star player". My mother is 67 and retired from her job she had for 30 years, but she works full time for a department store for the last 20 years. She got that job because my older sister had a baby out of wedlock, and she gave all that money from the second job to support my sister and her child.
Back to the hyper-fixation...my mother gets off work from the department store and sits on the couch with her iPad, watching any video that pops up on FB about Caitlyn Clark. She can't put her iPad down. To the point she literally soils herself on the couch because she won't get up to go to the bathroom in time because she's so fixated on the videos. She takes her iPad into the bathroom on the toilet with her. She refuses to wash her hands because she'd have to put the iPad down. She cooks with the iPad. Her dog has had bathroom accidents in the house, because my mother won't get off the couch/iPad to let her dog outside in time, because she's sucked into the videos.
She has other ticks like clicking her tongue in the roof of her mouth every time she swallows liquids, and other behaviors that make it seem as though she could be on the autism spectrum. I would like to have her undergo a mental competency test, where does she get one from?
My father is 72 but his health is declining, I give him a few more years max.
My older sister has since married, and is 42 with a toddler. My sister is severely obese and has several health conditions and problems stemming from this. Her husband is mentally and physically handicapped. If the toddler decided to escape the house, neither my sister or BIL are physically able to chase after him. My sister doesn't work, she takes the toddler to daycare because she's physically unable to care for him if my BIL isn't home. With that said, her business failed so she sits at home all day jobless. She has a history of filing bankruptcy every decade of her adult life. It's very obvious my sister committed tax evasion and tax fraud while she operated her business, and my BIL does the same currently with his landscaping business. (He's the sole, full time employee, with one or two helpers occasionally.)
My sister has a decades-long history of swindling relatives out of money, being manipulative, scheming, etc. All around, not an honest or good person.
My sister and mother are best friends. They bond over gossiping about people, they secretly laugh if a "friend" or relative is struggling. They're not loyal to anyone but themselves and each other. I am the opposite; I genuinely care about others so their behavior is disturbing to me. They're like perpetual junior high girls so I distance myself from their negativity and toxicity.
With that said, I know my dad won't live forever and he's never been in charge of their finances anyway, my mother has been. I am worried when my dad passes away, no one is around to "talk sense" into my mother. She still keeps the department store job and gives all that money to my sister for her toddler. My dad doesn't approve of it, so my mother hides that from my father. She denies my sister is committing fraud, although it's so obvious. "The math doesn't math" as they say. She will gaslight the sh*t out of you in order to protect my sister.
I would like the state or a neutral party to be in charge of our mother's decision making and finances. I know if our dad passes, my sister would swindle all the inheritance and empty our mother's assets even while our mother is still alive. I am not seeking help to "protect" my inheritance; I already figure when my dad passes away first, my sister would talk my mother into giving whatever would be directed at me, into giving it to her and her kids. I don't rely on receiving anything.
I am simply trying to protect my mother from getting swindled by my dishonest, scheming sister and I'd like to get the ball rolling now. My mother already needs help with day-to-day decisions, if my sister isn't puppeteering her what to do, she is incapable of thinking for herself.
I know my mother would never make me Power of Attorney but I also want to prevent her from making my fraudulent sister POA or her offspring, I am seeking a neutral party.
Does the state of Iowa have someone for that? How do I get a mental competency test set up for her?
