Taking care of a family member

Conserving family members can be difficult. The conservatee may present as agitated or angry that a family member "dare" interfere with their daily lives. They may resent the conservator for trying to control them. They may play the silence treatment. The conservatee may call the conservator and yell at them through the phone threatening to "do things to them" if they do not take them off conservatorship. The key with conservatorship is to stand your ground and keep on telling the conservatee that you are doing this in the best of their interests. You can also distance yourself from the verbal abuse by not accepting phone calls, messages, or mail from the conservatee. You can manage the conservatee's care by talking to their case manager and seeing how they are progressing. Conservators tend to burn out after a few months due to the tough nature of taking control over a family member's mental health care. However, serving as the private LPS conservator, you the conservator has more of a say and can see what you want in the treatment plan actually be executed. Just so you know, LA county has "approximately 2700 individuals currently on an LPS conservatorship". These numbers reflect the high case load that the public conservators have. With such a high case load, the burden of being a family member's conservator may outweigh the burden and anxiety of not knowing what is going on with your loved one when they are publicly conserved.