HI,
I am a registered nurse and deal with dementia and the elderly patients a lot
if she is abusing you and appears to be of not sound mind – or damages property you can call the ambulance service, you can say that you are concerned for her welfare as she might do something like hurt herself/ others /burn down the building, fall over ect, they will be obliged to take her into hospital and have her assessed – she may be suffering from delirium, which is temporary ie from an infection, fever or other illness that has affected her mental state, this can be done under “duty of care” where an ambulance officer forcibly transport someone to attend hospital for a proper assessment of there mental capacity – this may be the mental health act but will change from state to state
once a person enters the hospital system they will be under “duty of care” and doctors, social workers, mental health workers will be able to make decisions about her capacity to be returned to a unit on here own,
but it is difficult to force a person into care, as a person has rights to make their own decisions, and deciding someone’s capacity to be able to make their own choices, even though they could be putting themselves at risk is a difficult one, even though they might be abusive and appear completely demented to others in the building, she may have some “insight” into her own behavior – they may decide that she can be returned home
the more a person in this situation presents to the hospital the more likely action will be taken by the hospital staff to admit the person into care for their own protection and not return them home
ps – social services will do nothing as she will probably refuse their assistance and they are not obliged to do anything nor can they force a person to accept social services or support and thus the circle continues……..