The Board of Supervisors directed staff to respond to a grand jury report that found Riverside County workers who manage the affairs of elderly and developmentally disabled residents are overburdened and operating under dated guidelines.
The board, without comment, voted 5-0 to receive and file the 19-member civil grand jury's report on the Public Guardian's Office and have the Executive Office address the jury's findings by March 11.
The grand jury completed an inquiry last fall that included interviews, an analysis of policies and procedures and inspections of numerous records in the Public Guardian's Office, a branch of the Department of Mental Health with a $1.5 million annual budget.
The office has 10 case workers, or deputies, three supervisors and a clerical staff of five, according to the grand jury.
Jurors noted that deputies are routinely called to investigate reports of abuse and to find suitable living arrangements for clients who have no assets and are dependent on Medicare or Medi-Cal.
The grand jury said it learned public guardian deputies carry caseloads as high as 196 conservatees.
Full Article and Source:
County to Respond to Report Citing Deficiency in Public Guardian's Office
7 comments:
Without monitoring and oversight the system is not helping people.
196 conservatees! That should be illegal!
The national standard, incorporated in the law and regulations in many states, is 20 incapacitated people to one staff member.
Of course, in states like Virginia, public officials with the Virginia Department for the Aging and Rehabilitative Services and the Virginia Public Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board just ignore the law, and pretend that cases with indigent, penniless people and no one to speak for them are so-called "private" cases over which they have no control.
That's how public guardianship programs like Jewish Family Service of Tidewater and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia were able to dump their helpless clients in hellholes like those run by Scott Schuett, with 400 victims, for so many years. Please google Scott Schuett for the appalling details.
Shameful.
I'm glad to see some heat on the Public Guardian and I hope it leads to things getting cleaned up.
196 wards? I wonder how many of those really didn't need to be guardianized?
The public guardian's office should respond with how discipline has been doled out for these offenses.
196 wards. How many is too many?
I see nothing here for recommendations for the life and quality of their "wards" the elderly and developmentally disabled residents. 196 should be unlawful. There should be a fine and an investigation to actually warrant if some of their "wards" actually need to have a public guardian rather than having family appointed.
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