That's great Nana.   You really need to make sure the docs know about the
knife incident.   You'd be surprised how sometimes they can manage to pull
themselves together and appear to be perfectly OK when in a hospital
setting.   I fear for your poor father, as I imagine your whole family does.
Maybe now they can get her stabilized and on the right meds, which will make
a vast difference.

Best Regards,
Evelyn

Nana,

We had a similar experience with my father except that it was guns,
not knives. :)  With the help of documentation provided by a thorough
geriatric evaluation at the V.A., we (my mother and I) were able to
get an emergency temporary co-guardianship to be able to make medical
and legal decisions. This allowed us time (3 months) for our attorney
to prepare all of the testimony and documentation for us to apply for
a permanent guardianship. which gives us the right to make all of his
medical, legal, and financial decisions. You will need an attorney's
help to do this. It is a bit of a process, because they want to make
very sure that the situation is what we say it is and we are not just
trying to institutionalize him for our own personal gain (not that
there is much to gain in the way of $$).

My other advice is DO NOT SUGARCOAT any of her behaviors or symptoms
when talking to social workers and other mental health professionals.
They need to know exactly how bad things are. Your mother is a danger
to herself and others and needs psychiatric care that she likely will
not consent to if it is left up to her (my dad contended that nothing
was wrong with him and everyone else was crazy!!!).

The upshot of our situation is that we got my father placed in a
wonderful memory care nursing facility and because he is considered
100% disabled by the V.A. (physical injuries sustained in WWII plus
PTSD), they pay for all of his care in this facility. It is a real
Godsend and my mother can live in peace without fearing for her life.I
hope your situation can have an equally positive outcome.

Best of luck to you, Nana. I'll hold you in my prayers.

~Karla

I think you had a lot of prayers headed your way.  But we will keep
praying.
MXB