Dear Advocate:

My mom was recently conserved by my brother. He sold her house, moved her into a nursing home, and now he has told the nursing home staff that I’m not allowed to visit. What should I do?

Restricted in Reseda

Dear Restricted:

Prohibiting visitation with your mother is probably illegal. Conservators generally do not have the power to control the conservatee’s social life, including who may visit. Conservators of the estate clearly do not have such authority. Conservators of the person might have the ability to restrict visitation. The law is unclear on this matter but the state Judicial Council believes that conservatees retain the right to control their own visitation. The Judicial Council’s recitation of conservatee rights, Form GC-341, states that conservatees keep the right to “receive visits from family and friends.” Residents of nursing homes have particularly strong rights regarding visitation. Both federal and state law guarantee unfettered visitation from family members to residents.

You have a couple of options for ending your visitation restriction. One is to inform the court that granted the conservatorship about what is happening. Another is to inform the nursing home that its visitation restriction is illegal and give it a copy of Judicial Council Form GC-341. If neither of those options work, call CANHR.