Grandmother isn't allowing me to see my mother. What is the legal recourse for this?
Location: Charleston, South Carolina, USA
My mother is a woman who had a debilitating stroke in 2019. She lost the ability to use the right side of her body, can no longer speak or hear well, but her cognition is fine according to her various therapists/doctors.
My grandmother has essentially become a landlord for my mother. As far as I am aware, POA has been revoked. However, my mother does live with my grandmother and rents out a room in her house. There is no rental contract as far as I am aware, and she doesn't provide any further aid to my mother as my mother is quite capable of doing things on her own around the house.
The conditions in my grandmother's house is concerning. My mother has a large pension that gets deposited every month. Her family (brothers and sisters) are all money hungry, and her therapists who have been in the house with her, seen the interactions with the family, and have access to bank records, have informed me that they believe at the very least, financial abuse is taking place in the home. Not just by my grandmother, but by my aunts and uncles, as well.
I immediately had a friend file a DSS report for me since I can't do it. I live abroad in another country, so my means of helping my mother are limited. However, I recently was able to go back home, and one of my priorities was helping situate my mother and get her out of that problem.
I arranged it with a therapist, and my mother confirmed, because as mentioned, she has full cognitive abilities still. I got to the house and my grandmother denied me access to see my mother. I can understand not entering her property, but she wouldn't let me even see her. I called the police and when they heard what was going on, they went inside to do a wellness check and confirmed that my mother is physically okay, but this is a civil issue and there isn't much they can do. I asked if they couldn't even roll her out on her wheelchair and they said no! My grandmother also said the therapist couldn't come in because the therapist offered to roll her out.
Is this truly a civil issue? If that's the case, what exactly do I do here to be able to see my mother? The report filed with DSS seemingly went nowhere as my mother is still in an actively unsafe situation where she is being taken advantage of. What other actions can I do?