Are their laws in the US to protect old people from themselves where dementia/hallucinations exist?

Question

My dad is determined to stay home. This past Friday morning he was having yet another hallucination thinking he saw people trying to steal his car. He shot through the window of his home towards the car. Then when the imaginary people wouldn't get out of the car, he poured gas around the car to smoke them out. The sheriff came out to the house twice in one night and he ended up in the nut house.
He poured the gas very close to the house and was sitting outside with a shotgun when the cops came out.
He doesn't bathe (maybe 2 baths in 7 years) and he doesn't want any help from me. They are mad with me, because the people at the hospital want me to help or put him in a nursing home. I don't want to do the nursing home thing and was trying to get them closer to me so that I could help them. My feeling is that if I don't get involved the state is now involved and will put them both away if I don't get them closer to me so that I can see them taken care of. I live 2 hrs away! Help?

I am horribly scared that he will hurt my mother or himself!

Answer 1

You can be made conservator of one or both of them, if they are unable to care for themselves safely. Then you can make decisions about where they will live, medical treatment, and so forth. Very likely your dad could be helped by medication and not be so crazy. He needs a thorough physical and mental examination.
Maybe they won't have to go into a nursing home, but if they do have to, you will have to do that. Try to make sure you are assessing the situation correctly.
If you can't move to be closer to them, you will need to move them closer to you. I know they will resist, so you will need to get conservatorship. They will get mad at times, but try to impress upon them that you love them and you would not be doing this if it were not really necessary for their own good.
Good luck figuring it out, it will be a challenge, but they do need you now.