Sen. Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Aging, is calling on the Justice Department to focus more attention on abuse of the elderly. Kohl, in a letter to the department’s Office of Victims of Crime, pointed out what simple arithmetic makes clear. The burgeoning number of senior citizens over time will, by definition, mean that more and more elderly people will suffer from financial and physical abuse.Kohl wants the office to add elder abuse to the list of priority items that states can cite in seeking funding.
Social scientists have been slower to pick up on the problem of elder abuse than on the harmful treatment of children, which now receives considerable focus from the federal government. Yet a growing number of studies show that abuse of the elderly is widespread. As many as one in 20 report that money has been improperly taken from them in the preceding year. That would translate into 2.5 million people nationally. Those same studies show that the perpetrators typically are trusted advisers – lawyers or financial advisers.
Or members of their own families.
Source:
Senator Wants to Focus on Elder Abuse
No Sen. Herb Kohl doesn't. He's chair of the Senate Aging Committee and his answer to guardianship abuse is certification and training.
ReplyDeleteYou can't stop lawyers from stealing by certification and training.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good laugh.
ReplyDeleteKohl wants it all to be about families and not fiduciaries.
ReplyDeleteHe's getting started a little late if that's his focus. The man's going to retire in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everybody here. This is fluff.
I live in another state and work as an in-home licensed caregiver for an agency. My state requires agency in-home caregivers to pass a nationwide background check and a TB test.
ReplyDeleteOver the past 18 months I have encountered many unlicensed /private caregivers. In one case, our agency had to call the police to have an abusive private (unlicensed) caregiver evicted.
She was living in our client's home for free and collecting Social Security, while being paid $1,200 per mo. under the table by our disabled client.
This 65 year old 'caregiver' sat in a chair with an oxygen tank on all day long. She smoked and watched TV most of the day and did not feed or care for the client in any way. The house was filthy when our agency arrived.
This live-in caregiver became angry with our disabled client for hiring our agency. The next week, our client's face was bruised, but she would not tell us how it happened, but asked our agency to remove the non-licensed/ private caregiver from the home.
I was advised by my supervisor to call 911. The police arrived ASAP and removed the abusive caregiver within 2 hours.
In another instance, I met a private caregiver and his wife who had become employed by our client along with our agency. This man had knocked on our client's door and introduced he and his wife as private caregivers. He was given our client's banking information, PIN and access to all his accounts! The client did not have a close family member to pay close attention to his finances and his estate. He passed away a few weeks ago - who knows what took place on his accounts?
I am in school for social work and am researching this issue. The issue is growing nationwide.
All states need federal and state laws requiring all non-licensed/ private caregivers to be registered, trained and accountable to an agency for what they are doing with seniors.
Currently, these off the street caregivers receive cash and work under the table without paying taxes. Most licensed senior care agencies charge between $15-$20 per hour with 2-3 hour minimum - or about $60 per shift.
Seniors and/or their family members are hiring private / non-licensed caregivers off the street. They are unaware of potential abuse with this arrangement, and generally do not have the background checked out. Private caregivers advertise on Craigslist quite often. Who knows if they are ex-cons or if they have been abusing other seniors who they've worked for? or if they have been stealing? no one would know.
I've talked to many seniors who have had personal items (jewelry, china, silverware, tools, perfume, bedding, etc.)stolen from their homes. In many cases, the caregiver shops for their client and takes a little of this and that when buying bulk items - or purchases items for their personal use via the client's credit card or cash.
Please alert your family and friends on this growing issue. Today, these individuals are out there making between $8,000 - $30,000 annually under the table.They are not accountable to anyone. We need legislation and a nationwide data base managed through each state - possibly through Adult Protective Services or another state agency.
Anonymous 2, you're right that families are hiring caregivers off of the street without checking them out at all. It's a dangerous practice and we have run many posts about this subject. Sadly, a good number of the articles come after the caregiver has exploited or harmed a vulnerble person instead of preventative warnings.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading our Blog and for the work you do advoating for the vulnerable elderly and/or disabled.
Kohl's interested in making an appearance on elder abuse and I believe that's about all.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad. I was hoping for better from him and his office.
FOR A VERY LIMITED TIME, NASGA members have an opportunity to join others on this and other issues in such a way as to get the White House's attention.
ReplyDeleteIn order to take advantage of this opportunity, they will need to consider and sign the petition on the White House's webpage http://wh.gov/gJG
I pray that Senator Kohl is not just pandering. Senator Kohl is in a position to actually get criminal investigations of the judicial miscreants that perpetrate these horrific crimes. Senator Kohl is in denial or part of the problem if he doesn’t recognize or admit that attorneys use family disputes to encourage and justify unwarranted, unnecessary, and unjust Guardianships. It is important to know that abuses of Guardianship Laws are not reserved just for the elderly. I personally know a Lady who was sentenced to a Guardianship petitioned by the divorce attorney for her former spouse during the partition of the property. The judge appointed his own best friend's wife as the Guardian. The Guardian is also a close friend of the divorce attorney. The Guardian is a part time attorney with no Guardianship experience or credentials other than the fact that she is a close personal friend of the judge. Needless to say the Lady was not allowed to participate in the property partition. The Guardian liquidated the Lady's life savings and assets ($220,000.00 Retirement, 3 Life Insurance Policies $135,000.00, $33,000.00 IRA, and transferred $50,000.00 IRA to the former spouse.) The Guardian also filed erroneous Income Tax Returns in the Lady's name but did not pay the resultant tax bills. Nor did the Guardian provide for the taxes due on the early withdrawal of the Lady's retirement funds. Nor did the Guardian pay for the bills she assumed for the Lady in the property partition. The Guardian used the bulk of the Lady's Life Savings to pay herself (at $200/hr.) and her gaggle of attorney's and CPAs (there is also ties between the judge and the CPA firm.) The Guardianship is over only after the Guardian took all of the Lady's money and left this Lady in debt of well over $100,000.00. The judge in this case not only aided and abetted the perpetration of this unwarranted guardianship but the judge also committed many grievous offenses to protect his friend thus giving her the approval of the court to literally rob this Lady blind. These criminals perpetrate these crimes using these Unconstitutional Guardianship Laws and then hide behind the same Guardianship Laws that allow them to commit the crimes. The Victims are left broke and helpless to defend themselves and unjustly stamped forever with the stigma of mental incompetence.
ReplyDeleteDid he only just send a letter? Why aren't our politicians who we elect taking these stories to the media? What are they waiting for? He wants this problem added to the list for funding? Maybe he is afraid that as he is aging one of the thousands of unscrupulous attorneys and judges will take advantage of him and lock him up in a nursing home and steal his estate. I'm sorry, but a letter is not enough. Action is what is needed.
ReplyDelete