My wife has a friend who lives in Missouri, and has power of attorney over her mother, who cannot take care of herself. The mother is in some kind of assisted living home in Missouri, and just got approval for Medi(caide? Care?) to pay for the housing.
The friend has a tenuous relationship with her mother, who turned a blind eye to a lot of (unreported) abuse that the woman suffered from her childhood on. The mother is pretty toxic when it comes to how she interacts with the daughter. My wife witnessed firsthand a couple of instances where the daughter brought deodorant or shirts for the mom, and then the mother would complain about her not visiting, or getting her things.
The friend has her own medical issues and has a limited amount of what she can own, so she set up a trust with my wife as trustee.
The assisted living has threatened the daughter with legal action, saying they're going to file elder abuse charges if she doesn't give them all the money that's in this trust, check fraud, and that the daughter should never have had power of attorney.
Do they have a leg to stand on? What actually constitutes elder abuse in the state of Missouri?