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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think you aren’t getting it, OP.  These aren’t just well-meaning words.  The SW is trying to explain something to you.  Your parents are adults, and they can make their own decisions about where to live and how to run their lives whether you agree with them or not.   In fact, there is no other option.  Medical professionals can’t force people to make better decisions about their health and finances.  [/quote]

If they are competent nothing can be done.[/quote]

And if they aren’t competent, then what?  OP is going to become their legal guardian?[/quote]

My experience is someone can clearly be incompetent, but still be considered competent after an doctor evaluates. If that is the case, there is nothing you can do, though the relatives and unhelpful siblings will think you have a magic wand you can wave. If the person is declared incompetent then Health POA can make some choices, but good luck. Sometimes it takes a lot of meds to get the difficult ones to comply. It's pretty miserable. Sure you go for guardianship too. Someone on here kept saying how easy it was. Not for us.[/quote]

Doctor here.  I can’t say whether someone is competent or incompetent, only a judge can do that.  I can only say whether or not someone has the capacity to make a particular urgent medical decision in that moment.  
If you drank bleach because you thought that you were given godlike powers, you accidentally blotted out the sun, and you needed to cleanse yourself, then you don’t have the capacity to decide whether or not to have your esophagus removed before you die.  You cannot understand the risks and benefits due to delusions that you are immortal.

If you don’t want to have a c-section because you believe in natural birth, and you understand that your baby might die, then you have that right.  Despite the claims of people saying they were forced into c-sections, that’s not how it works in the US.  I have been in the room and watched babies die while their mothers refused a section.

I cannot force people to make the choices that I think they should make.  I can not force heroin addicted young men and women into rehab.  I cannot force people with paranoid schizophrenia to live in an apartment instead of a homeless shelter, and I cannot force elderly people into a nursing facility.  I know that you think that I don’t get the fear that you are living with, but I do.  It’s painful.  I’m sorry that you are going through this.  I hope that you find a community that can support you.  
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