A panel of experts tasked by Gov. Kathy Hochul
to evaluate the needs of New York’s aging population has recommended
that the state permanently fund and oversee guardianship services. The
governor won’t say whether she will.
by Jake Pearson
A task force appointed by
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is recommending that the state spend at least
$15 million per year and create state-level oversight to bolster its
troubled guardianship system, in which judges assign individuals or
organizations to care for some 30,000 residents deemed incapable of
looking after their own affairs.
If adopted, the plan would
represent a major change in how the state government cares for some of
its most vulnerable residents. New York currently budgets just $1
million to fund a guardianship hotline, and the legal arrangements
receive little official oversight, with responsibility for people’s
wellbeing spread among the courts, nonprofit organizations, private
lawyers and companies.
The plan concludes that
improving the guardianship system would offer outsize benefits and would
not be overly difficult to achieve.
The recommendations mark
the first time Hochul’s administration has addressed problems with the
state’s guardianship system since ProPublica investigated it extensively in a series of stories last year.
Those stories revealed how some guardians neglected the vulnerable
clients entrusted to their care. They also highlighted how few guardians
the state has to serve the New Yorkers who require assistance — and how
little oversight exists to ensure proper care. The problem is
particularly acute for poor people who have no family able or willing to
look after them, ProPublica found, a population known in industry
circles as the “unbefriended.”
Advocates and judicial
leaders have been calling for the guardianship system to be overhauled
for years, but such an effort has remained elusive. It’s unclear whether
Hochul’s task force will change that, even as the group’s report keeps
guardianship in the political conversation in Albany.
The Legislature has barely
funded guardianship services, allotting just enough in its budget the
past two years to maintain a statewide hotline. And even the governor
won’t say whether she plans to implement the reforms suggested by her
own panel.
“The Governor appreciates
the dedicated time and effort that many stakeholders put into producing
the proposals included in the Master Plan for Aging and looks forward to
working with these stakeholders and the legislature to collectively
evaluate how best to utilize them to ensure New York remains a place
where older New Yorkers can thrive,” a spokesperson for the governor
said in a statement.
The spokesperson,
Nicolette Simmonds, didn’t respond to an email and call asking for more
specifics, including what Hochul’s position is on guardianship reform.
But Guardianship Access
New York, a statewide coalition of nonprofit guardians and elder and
disability justice advocates, said that it was encouraged by the
governor’s plan since it acknowledged “a long-standing crisis.”
“New York’s guardianship
system is past the point of crisis, and the Governor and Legislature
must act now before it collapses,” Arthur Diamond, a former supervising
judge of guardianship matters in Nassau County and a member of GANY,
said in a statement. “We must stop ignoring the most vulnerable of the
elder population and protect them now.”
But how, exactly, that
will happen remains unclear. GANY has proposed the state fund a network
of nonprofits with experience in government contracting and providing
guardianship services.
Within the court system, a
guardianship advisory committee recommended earlier this year that the
state create a taxpayer-funded statewide organization to care for the
unbefriended, records obtained by ProPublica show.
And some lawmakers have proposed changes, though none of them seek comprehensive reform.
Assemblyman Charles
Lavine, who chairs his chamber’s judiciary committee, said he supports a
series of public roundtables to be hosted this fall by the courts and
advocates “to gather local input and firsthand perspectives on
guardianship access challenges” as a means of formulating a more
comprehensive solution.
“These discussions will
help inform statewide efforts to expand and improve guardianship
services, including the creation of a comprehensive public guardianship
system,” he said.
Still, any significant
reform effort will require buy-in from the Legislature’s top leaders.
Neither Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins nor Assembly
Speaker Carl Heastie responded to requests for comment on Hochul’s
Master Plan for Aging.
Free, fillable Power of Attorney forms can now be downloaded directly from the Elder Abuse Task Force’s webpage, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today.
These forms are part of the state’s ongoing effort to protect and
empower older adults by providing accessible legal tools at no cost.
These forms help Michigan residents and families designate someone to
make financial and medical decisions. They’re useful if a person becomes
unable to make decisions on their own.
“These
forms will help people exercise their rights and protect themselves and
their family members from potential abuse or exploitation,” Nessel
said. “We are grateful to the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting for
making them accessible to the public.”
The newly available forms:
Finances Power of Attorney: This form lets users decide who makes financial decisions for them if they can’t make them for themselves.
Medical Power of Attorney: This form lets users decide who makes health-care decisions for them if they can’t make them for themselves.
These
tools are part of a broader initiative to combat elder abuse throughout
the state. Launched in 2019, the Elder Abuse Task Force consists of
more than 55 organizations from the public, private and nonprofit
sectors. More than 100 individuals serve across seven committees and
work on nine key initiatives. One initiative requires certification and
training for professional guardians.
Expansion of mandatory reporting laws to include financial advisors and securities brokers.
Over
100,000 older adults statewide are victims of elder abuse —
experiencing abuse, neglect, or exploitation, according to the Michigan
Department of Attorney General.
Michigan
residents looking for elder abuse resources can call 800-24-ABUSE
(22873) or 855-444-3911 to report suspected elder abuse.
A task force that includes a local county district attorney, police
officer, and daughter of an elderly crime victim continues to review
proposed state laws designed to strengthen protections for senior
citizens and others living in care facilities.
State Sen. Lynda
Schlegel Culver, R-27, whose district includes Columbia, Montour,
Northumberland, Snyder and a portion of Luzerne counties, is among those
working to review and revive two bills that were introduced last year
and received no further action or advancement in the legislative
process.
The work of these lawmakers and task force members
demonstrates an important commitment to the protection of those who
often don’t have the ability to protect themselves. We hope other state
lawmakers take notice and help transform these proposals into new laws.
Senate
Bill 261, introduced on Jan, 31, 2023, and sponsored by Sen. Culver,
and Sens. Doug Mastriano, R-33, of Adams and Franklin counties, and
Patrick J. Stefano, R-32, of Bedford, Somerset, Fayette and part of
Westmoreland counties, would add crimes committed against non-verbal,
care-dependent victims to the list of offenses that could be prosecuted
at any time — not subject to statute of limitations constraints. Other
crimes not subject to time limits include murder, voluntary
manslaughter, violations relating to fatal accidents and crimes against
law enforcement personnel or those caught in involuntary servitude, such
as sexual trafficking, among others.
“Care-dependent individuals
do not always have the cognitive or verbal ability to communicate crimes
committed against them, such as rape, sexual assault, simple assault,
aggravated assault and abuse or neglect,” Sen. Mastriano wrote in a
memo. “In many cases, these crimes are discovered by family members
after the statute of limitations has already run out.”
Senate Bill 885 would create a statewide registry of those found to have abused people living in care facilities.
The registry information, which would include the perpetrator’s name,
Social Security number, age, sex and address, would not be made public,
but would be available for reference by care facility administrators.
Those
placed on the list could immediately appeal the decision and could ask
to be removed from the list after five years, and annually after that,
the bill states.
Sen. Culver said the task force is reviewing the provisions with the goal of making them better, if possible.
“We
wanted to discuss the impacts and the consequences that we may not have
intended, and then get it back to the task force for review. We will
recirculate it (in the Senate) for co-sponsorship and then reintroduce
it,” she said. “We really want this to be a comprehensive bill that
cleans the language up so that law enforcement has the tools necessary
to make arrests and the district attorney offices have the tools
necessary to prosecute. Once we get this through, our plan is to look at
other ways to strengthen the laws that protect our senior citizens.
“We’re not going to stop until we feel our seniors are adequately protected.”
NOTE:
Opinions expressed in The Daily Item’s editorials are the consensus of
the publisher, top newsroom executives and community members of the
editorial board.
Jan Garwood is just one ward in Florida's guardianship system who lost her home while incapacitated (WPEC).
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Three years ago, the CBS12 News I-Team reported on Jan Garwood's guardianship nightmare:
a Florida senior was declared "incapacitated" by a judge, and put under
the control of a professional guardian, who quickly moved her into a
memory care facility. Garwood was there for three years, until she
finally fought her way out of the restrictive guardianship.
But while she won her rights and freedom back, she lost almost everything else.
"I said I wanted to go home, and they said, 'You don't have a home anymore,'" Garwood said.
Her home was sold not long after she was institutionalized.
The
guardian did not have her property appraised, and didn't list it in a
public database to find a buyer. Instead, Garwood's home was sold to an
employee at the very assisted living facility where the guardian had
placed her.
Florida Deputy Inspector General Anthony Palmieri investigates
misconduct in the state guardianship system, and he calls Garwood's case
one of the worst in an increasingly common trend: questionable real
estate transactions in the guardianship system.
"Real estate is definitely something that has ticked up for our investigations," Palmieri said.
When
a guardian is suspected of a crime, his Palm Beach County team is able
to investigate and refer a case for criminal prosecution. In some cases,
he has uncovered real estate sales that seem to enrich a whole network
of other people -- leaving the ward without their most valuable asset --
and the security of their home.
Often, guardians petition the
court to sell a ward's home, claiming that extra money is needed to pay
for their ward's care. But when the sale price falls short of the home's
estimated value -- and if the buyer goes on to quickly flip that home
for a profit -- then the ward is the one getting ripped off.
"In
my book, that's a problem," he said. "The guardianship is to serve the
person that needs this intervention and this protection. So anything
that's not giving them the fair value [of their asset] is problematic. I
want to look at it."
Recently, Palmieri's team looked at a case
involving a former real estate agent, turned professional guardian in
Seminole County named Dina Carlson. An investigative report mentioned
three real estate sales she initiated on behalf of her wards.
For
one ward's property in Lake Mary, Carlson hired real estate agents Mark
and Kimberly Adams: Mark was the listing agent, and Kimberly completed a
"competitive market analysis" instead of getting the property
appraised. Investigators wrote that they considered the CMA to be
"fraudulent" because it undervalued the home. The Lake Mary property was
never offered to the public, but was sold to a buyer for $215,000.
Three months later, the new owner flipped it for $347,000.
"Is it a red flag if you see a home is sold and flipped for a much higher price?" The I-Team asked Palmieri.
"Definitely
something that I would take notice of," he said. "I would want to
understand the relationship, if any, between the guardian, the real
estate agent, and subsequent buyers. I would look at those and connect
the dots, to see if there are relationships that are improper and should
have been reported to the court."
His report highlighted two other real estate sales that seem to include conflicts of interest.
For
a ward's home in Apopka, Carlson used real estate agents Mark and
Kimberly Adams to sell a home for $120,000. It was sold the very day it
was listed. Five months later, that buyer transferred the title of the
home to Mark and Kimberly Adams, who then, one month later, sold the
house for $298,000.
In a third case, Carlson
sold a ward's home in the desirable Orlando suburb of Winter Springs.
She again used Mark and Kimberly Adams to sell the three-bed, three-bath
property. It went for just $195,000. The buyer who got such a good
deal? Realtor Kimberly Adams' brother.
The I-Team reached out to
Dina Carlson, Mark Adams and Kimberly Adams multiple times to ask them
about these real estate sales, but they never responded to our messages.
Palmieri's report concluded that there was probable cause to
suspect the trio had committed multiple crimes, including exploitation
of the elderly, grand theft and scheme to defraud, and she sent a
referral to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Without
explanation, the FDLE declined to pursue those charges, writing in a
memo that "no evidence was developed to substantiate a criminal
predicate."
In
a settlement agreement with the Office of Public and Professional
Guardians, Carlson accepted a "reprimand" from the state, and agreed to
take eight hours of continuing education courses, including a "Guardian
Refresher" class.
"No one is holding anyone accountable," victim-advocate Hillary Hogue said.
After
serving on Florida's Guardianship Improvement Task Force, Hogue
believes more regulation and oversight must be required before a
guardian is allowed to sell a ward's home. She believes requiring a
certified appraisal is a start.
When Lynn Fiedler first met with The Daily Item weeks after news of
horrendous acts of elder abuse emerged out of a local senior care
center, she displayed a firmness and determination of someone about to
initiate change.
As part of a new elder abuse task force that
includes lawmakers, law enforcement personnel, lawyers and other
advocates, Fiedler is pushing ahead.
Feidler has often been front
and center, a voice for the voiceless as the legal maneuverings in the
wake of extensive elder abuse charges emerging out of the Heritage
Springs Memory Care Center in Union County continued. Fiedler’s mother
was one of the victims of the gross actions of two individuals — a
then-18-year-old woman and a then-17-year-old juvenile male — over a
five-month window in late 2022 and into early 2023.
During
that first meeting, Fiedler understood change was needed. It might not
help her family, but she wanted to make sure individuals who perpetrated
these disgusting acts were appropriately handled by the justice system
and upgrades made to that system to expand punitive measures.
She
knew then, and still understands a year later, the work is just
beginning. It’s why she often wears a T-shirt with a “Journey to
Justice” message on it.
“We realize this is going to be a long
journey,” Feidler said after a task force meeting last week. “This is
one of the first steps to the journey. We’re all very invested in this.
Our goal is to create better legislation to protect this population.
First, second, third or however many steps it takes, we’re in for the
long haul.”
Fiedler’s determination is something state Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver
acknowledged is a driving force behind the task force. Learning the
stories of the 17 residents and their families has forced action, she
said.
“It’s one thing to read it, but it’s another to talk to
folks who have family members that were impacted,” said Culver. “This
impacts entire families, people who went to visit, people who support,
this impacts an entire family. You never, ever think no matter how much
research you do, no matter how many times you visit, that this can
actually happen in that small amount of time you’re not there. We’re
coming to learn that we’re not protecting our senior citizens. We’re
leaving them out there very vulnerable. The law is not the same as if
you were a child.”
A law is moving through the state Senate that will be named Alice’s Law, after Fiedler’s mother, Culver said.
It’s another step. But another step in a long process built on a determination to see real, significant and impactful change.
NOTE:
Opinions expressed in The Daily Item’s editorials are the consensus of
the publisher, top newsroom executives and community members of the
editorial board.
MIAMI (WSVN) - Group home horror has landed three employees in hot
water, and this, as well as other cases, has led to the formation of a
new task force.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez
Rundle released surveillance video of the employees back in December
struggling to restrain a patient at the group home known as the Family
Tree Concept, Wednesday.
The video showed them aggressively taking him down, putting the patient in a choke-hold, which ultimately ended his life.
“He
was lifeless, and they basically choked hold him to death,” said
Rundle. “The group home staff appeared to have little training on how to
actually deal with problems related to mental illnesses or training on
how to restrain a person without injuring them or killing them.”
Katherine Hair, Terrence Nelson Jr. and Derrick Coley have all been
charged with manslaughter and aggravated abuse in connection with the
man’s death.
Rundle, along with the county’s mayor and several
other officials, gathered Wednesday afternoon to announce the formation
of the Elder and Vulnerable Abuse Work Group with the goal to stop
incidents like this from happening again.
“We need to do more to fight elder and vulnerable adult exploitation abuse,” said Rundle.
7News stopped by the facility at 1370 NE 138th St. in North Miami to try get some answers, but no one wanted to talk.
The
group also spoke about several other cases involving elderly abuse and
exploitation, including one where a woman allegedly pretended to be
someone else online to gain the trust of an elderly victim and was able
to swindle her out of large sums of money.
Another example is a
case where a woman in Doral, pretended to be the daughter of an elderly
cancer patient to sneak into a hospital and scam her out of hundreds of
thousands of dollars. That suspect has not been arrested, although her
son has a connection to the crime.
“We are going to get to work
protecting our older adults, our vulnerable population from abuse, fraud
and exploitation,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Florida
ranks second in the nation for the number of victims of crime against
those age 60 and older. Miami-Dade County ranks number one in the state.
“Sadly, of course, the problem hasn’t gotten better, it has only gotten worse,” said Levine Cava.
The
multiple agencies working together said they are in need of the
public’s help because they rely on reports filed. Then, they are able to
pursue the people responsible.
The three employees are due back in court on June 23.
The Florida Guardianship Improvement Task Force has released its recommendations
to improve the state’s guardianship system. Staffed and sponsored by
the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers Association, the task force
assessed the vulnerabilities and how the state can better protect the
best interests of wards.
The task force was assembled in the summer of 2021 amidst the media
attention to the #freebritany movement and other abuses of the system.
One of the most notable cases is that of Rebecca Fierle,
a professional guardian with hundreds of wards across several Florida
counties. She has been arrested and charged with abuse and neglect after
the death of one of her wards, and is currently awaiting trial. Many of
her wards’ family members are also accusing her of stealing from her
ward’s estate and calling for an investigation of her financial records,
but to date, she has not been charged with any financial crimes.
There is also concern over a bill making its way through the Florida legislature, the Guardianship Jurisdiction Act.
The proposed law would make a Florida judge’s orders take precedence
over guardianships in other states. While proponents argue that the law
would prevent costly legal battles over jurisdictions, others argue that
it makes it easier for wards to fall prey to predatory guardians such
as Rebecca Fierle and can trap visitors against their will who fall ill while visiting the state.
While there are certainly legitimate cases where an incapacitated
individual needs a guardian to represent their interests, there is much
work to be done to prevent wards from being exploited and abused by
court-appointed guardians.
The Guardianship Improvement Task Force’s Recommendations
In their report, the task force made the following recommendations to improve Florida’s guardianship system:
Creation of a Statewide Database. A data collection
system for all guardianship cases in the state will provide objective
data for improvements to the system, as well as increase public trust
and transparency. There has already been some movement on implementing
this recommendation, with a new bill proposed by Representative Linda
Chaney, R-St. Petersburg.
Forming a Guardianship Task Force. A
permanent and multidisciplinary task force will be responsible for
continually assessing the system and suggesting improvements to prevent
abuse.
Increasing the Education and Training of Guardians and Creating a Professional Guardian Database. This
proposal will create more stringent requirements for becoming a
professional guardian and to better track the wards assigned to each
guardian to prevent abuse of wards. The database will be available to
the public and will include each guardian’s disciplinary history.
Adopting Uniformity in Forms. A uniform guardianship form that is required across the state will help with data collection and tracking when wards are moved.
Education of Judges. Judges should be more fully educated on advance directives, power of attorney, and estate planning.
What To Do If You Have Questions About Guardianship
There is a multitude of laws regarding the guardianship system in
Florida, and big changes seem to be underway. If you have questions
about a current or potential guardianship situation, a guardianship attorney will have the most up-to-date information and will be able to provide recommendations.
Brian Long is 77 and knows his age makes him a target for the
increasing number of scammers who try to steal from senior citizens.
They see the elderly as easy prey, he said, and are ruthless enough to come after them.
Long
has learned enough about financial abuse of the elderly that he not
only recognizes emails, phone calls and text messages from people
attempting to rip him off, but also leads seminars about these crimes on
behalf of Berks-Lancaster-Lebanon LINK, an agency that helps the aging
and disabled.
Despite his attempts to help people avoid being victimized, Long has
repeatedly heard from seniors who still fell prey to financial schemes,
evidence of how devious those scammers can be, he said.
Long and
others who work with the elderly in Berks hope a new state task force
can help protect seniors, improve reporting mechanisms and cut down on
those crimes by coordinating efforts between agencies.
"Financial
exploitation causes significant harm to older adults, and we know it is
significantly underreported," said state Secretary of Aging Robert
Torres, who is chairing the task force. "The department felt it was
imperative to bring together stakeholders who work closely with older
adults and discuss how financial exploitation occurs and ways to prevent
and stop it.”
The task force’s creation stemmed from a recommendation in a recent Pennsylvania Department of Aging report.
In
studying several hundred substantiated financial exploitation cases
statewide, the department found that on average the victim was female,
around 79 years old, widowed and living alone, with an income above the
federal poverty guidelines. Sixty-five percent of the perpetrators were
family members, most of them adult children.
But probably less
than 10% of cases are reported, the study estimated, and as a result the
approximate losses for fiscal year 2017-18 could have been as high as
$2.5 billion, the study found.
"It really is a crisis," said
Detective Robert Heiden of the Berks County district attorney’s office,
who has investigated many cases involving financial exploitation of
seniors.
"For some victims, it can be financially devastating," he said.
Family ties
About
75% of the cases Heiden sees in Berks involve family members stealing
from their parents or grandparents, with a small percentage involving
caregivers, and the rest committed by scammers, he said.
Sometimes
seniors are targeted because it's assumed they have experienced a
decline in mental capacity, but often it's because scammers are hoping
they're isolated and won't talk to anyone about the crime, Heiden said.
He
has spoken with some victims who were so embarrassed that they were
reluctant to report being taken advantage of, but Heiden assures them
they aren't alone.
"I tell them that it happens to a lot of
people," he said. "They aren't the first. And it's best for them if we
try to get their money back. Sometimes that money is their life's
savings."
Berks detectives, state police and local police
departments do sometimes get convictions in those crimes and can recoup
money, but that isn’t always possible depending on the nature of the
theft, how difficult it can be to trace the scammers, or how much money
the thieves can afford to pay back, he said.
"There are times that money is gone," Heiden said.
Heiden
said the average amount stolen from senior victims nationally is
$40,000, and he investigated a case last year in Berks in which $180,000
was taken.
Not only are the victims missing that money, but they
may now have trouble applying for the government programs and medical
insurance assistance until they prove what happened to their savings, he
said.
"It can affect the level of care they receive," he said.
Pandemic impact
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many seniors unable to receive visits
from loved ones and they are more vulnerable to being ripped off, Heiden
said.
By basically sheltering in place, Heiden said, they have
less contact with family members who usually check their finances and
mail as well as with groups of friends they may have met for breakfasts
or lunches, and with whom they discussed concerns.
"That system of checks and balances isn't there now," he said.
Heiden urged seniors to remember the adages that nothing is free, and that if something seems too good to be true, it likely is.
"If you're suspicious, or you notice something wrong, talk to someone you trust," he said.
Those
who think they’ve been victimized should call local law enforcement or
their bank if that's where they notice a problem, he said.
False trust
Most
of the cases the Berks County Area Agency on Aging has seen over the
years involved family members stealing from seniors, and those crimes
have increased over the last five years or so, Director Jessica Jones
said.
But the office also sees cases in which people earned the
trust of seniors either in-person, online or by phone in order to rip
them off, she said.
Among the most insidious schemes are those
that involve tricking seniors into thinking they're in a long-distance
romantic relationship and convincing them that they need to send money
or gift cards to stay together, she said.
Long has seen those crimes occur locally as well and said they can be extremely hard emotionally for the victims.
"When
you're lonely you want to believe that someone is interested in you and
concerned about you and loves you," she said. "So people see it as
another chance at romance and throw caution to the wind, and others play
to those fantasies. Hope can be a powerful thing."
Another common
scam is to call seniors and convince them to send money to help a
relative who has been hospitalized or put in jail, Long said.
Sometimes
seniors answer calls from unknown numbers simply because it provides a
connection to the outside world, but that's a mistake, he said.
"If you don't know who is calling, don't answer the phone," he said.
Talk about it
Jones encourages people to speak with their older relatives to help them avoid becoming victims of such crimes.
"There
are people who think this isn't going to happen to my mom and dad, but
then it does," she said. "You should have that conversation with them."
Jones
hopes the task force can reduce these crimes through community
education and improve reporting mechanisms to help solve those that
occur.
The task force representatives agreed, saying it’s crucial to provide help to seniors.
"Elder
financial exploitation and fraud are all too common occurrences,
exacerbated by this pandemic," said state Secretary of Banking and
Securities Richard Vague, who is serving on the task force. "The work of
the task force to coordinate and develop strategies around financial
exploitation detection and prevention is more important than ever."
When Nora Stadler’s mother went into a nursing home a few years ago,
Stadler said she expected her mother would be “gone out of the house for
a week, max.”
She picked a facility for her mother in Summit County. Twelve days later, an aide told her to get her mom out and to a hospital.
Stadler found out her mother was malnourished and dehydrated, with a urinary tract infection and open sores.
Stadler’s mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, is now at a different facility.
“I
will say there are times where she currently is where I do leave in
tears wondering is my mom safe tonight? Is she OK?” she said. “It has
eaten away at me.”
Over the next six months, Stadler will work
with 17 other people as part of the Summit County Nursing Homes and
Facilities Task Force to examine the condition of nursing homes and
other long-term care facilities in the county and advocate for change.
The group had its first meeting Tuesday in the Greater Akron Chamber office, with about 30 members of the public attending.
The
18 task force members include local nursing home administrators, an
elder care attorney and representatives from the county’s Department of
Job and Family Services, the county’s Probate Court, the Direction Home
Akron Canton Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities, Summit County Public
Health, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio
Department of Health.
The group also includes community members who have had family members in nursing homes.
Summit County Council President Jeff Wilhite, who proposed creating the group
and is chairing the task force, said while anecdotes of people’s
experiences in nursing homes and other facilities are important, it’s
also necessary to collect facts and data to inform the task force’s
recommendations.
“Where this review leads us cannot be determined
at this beginning stage, but the focus will be first and foremost on the
dignity of family members, of those residents of nursing homes and
facilities in Summit County who are our neighbors, friends and family
members, many of whom — due to age, fragility, physical disability or
mental disability or a combination thereof — are vulnerable and reliant
upon the quality and quantity of care expected and provided to them by
their caregivers,” Wilhite said.
The task force will focus on
three areas over the next six months: reviewing current conditions,
assessing possible solutions and best practices, and making
recommendations. The group will then present its findings and
recommendations to Summit County Council and the county executive in a
written report.
The group is currently in the first stage,
reviewing current conditions. At its 90-minute meeting Tuesday, members
decided to create four committees: a legislation committee to look at
current and pending laws related to nursing homes and other facilities
at the federal, state and local levels; an operations committee to
define services and payment-related topics and issues; a visiting
committee to visit some of the highest- and lowest-rated facilities in
the county; and a staffing committee to look at employment, training and
wages.
“The pool of applicants that we have to hire from, it’s a national
and international problem that there’s more jobs than there are people,
and I think one of the things that this group and Summit County
specifically can do is to work on employment, whether it’s training or
some sort of structure,” Michael Wojno, CEO of assisted living developer
and operator Gables Management and owner of a home health and hospice
company, said of staffing issues.
May Chen, the retired executive
director of Asian Services in Action Inc., proposed recruiting from the
immigrant and refugee population.
“Their training needs to be more
culturally and linguistically specific, so the mainstream training is
not one size fits all,” she said. “They bring a lot of respect for
elders, a lot of compassion for elders because that’s a part of their
culture and tradition.”
Wilhite emphasized the task force’s mission is not to put nursing homes and other facilities out of business.
“All
we’re asking is you do your job and you allow us to help you do your
job so that the ladies and gentlemen in your care don’t suffer in a
negative and inhumane way,” he said.
Fairlawn
Rehab and Nursing Center on Ridgewood Road was one of five Ohio nursing
homes on a list of 88 federal “Special Focus Facilities” nationwide
with the most serious history of quality of care issues. It closed this summer.
Wilhite said the “inhumane care and neglect” described at the facility “struck me emotionally.”
“Then
the anger set in. It is unconscionable and disgusting at best,” he
said. “To sit and just shake your head is not enough. We need to act, to
address this very important human service need and I would add human
rights issue.”
Task force meetings are scheduled for Jan. 21, Feb.
18, March 24, April 21 and May 19, all at 10 a.m. in the Greater Akron
Chamber conference room in Akron’s AES Building, 388 S. Main St., Suite
205. The meetings are open to the public.
For questions, call the Summit County Council office at 330-643-2725.
LOWER SWATARA TOWNSHIP, DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. - More than $150,000 is
stolen from an 86-year-old man and police say it was his son and
daughter-in-law who did it.
Chester Robert Garman III and Kathy Alice Garman are facing charges
of felony theft and access device fraud for allegedly stealing $153,168
from Chester's father over a four year period.
"This case is the fourth biggest financial case since 2004," said Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick.
Dauphin County officials are using the Garman's elder financial abuse
case as a reminder for people to keep an eye on people ages 60 and
older for signs of abuse, neglect or financial exploitation. Reports of
elder abuse in the county continue to increase year after year. So far
this year, the county has received more than $1,600 reports of elder
abuse.
"In Dauphin County we want to make it clear that if there are
suspected abuses occurring, that we will take actions," said Hartwick.
"We are communicating and we will do everything to make sure we are
protecting out seniors and bring those individuals who perpetrate those
crimes to justice."
In most elder abuse cases, like the Garman's, the abuse is done by
someone they know and trust. The Dauphin County Area Agency on Aging
says there are many signs of abuse. Anytime anyone notices anything they
think is questionable, they can call the agency anonymously and they
can look into it.
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo says, to help prevent
financial abuse of an elder, have a power of attorney especially once
someone has a caregiver, even if they are a family member. He says
without it, it can be a license to steal.
"You want to have clear delineation of what the obligations are of the caregiver to the person receiving the care," said Chardo.
For more information on the Dauphin County Area Agency on Agings and how to report suspected elder abuse click here.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - Dauphin County's Elder Abuse Task Force is
expected to announce more information about a couple accused of stealing
more tan $150,000 from an elderly relative.
Police arrested
Chester "Rob" and Kathy Garman. Investigators said they used an
86-year-old relative's credit card and accessed his bank cards without
his knowledge from 2013-2017.
The case is the 4th largest sum of money involved in a financial exploitation case since the task force was formed in 2004.
The task force will hold a press conference Monday at 10 a.m. at the Dauphin County Administration Building in Harrisburg.
With animated hands punctuating her speech, Broward County Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren seems more passionate and forceful than the typical black-robed jurist presiding over a courtroom from an elevated bench.
When she speaks, she still sounds like the woman she was decades ago:
the former director of the Office of the Public Guardian, who once
traveled across the state to advocate for patients at a psychiatric
hospital on the brink of closure.
Back then, Lerner-Wren established herself as a staunch protector and formidable champion, staving off abuse and neglect for thousands in Broward County and across Florida.
Now, more than 30 years later and despite her elevation to the bench,
she is still the guardian, straddling two worlds and creating a “court
of refuge” for mentally ill defendants facing either imprisonment or
care.
Since 2000, the court she presides over has diverted more than 20,000
people with mental illness from the county jail, where they faced
criminal charges for misdemeanor offenses. Instead of a system that
would give jail time, for instance, to schizophrenics charged with
disruptive behavior in public, Lerner-Wren is at the center of a
post-booking diversionary strategy that decriminalizes mental illness.
The idea is to administer justice to offenders facing unique
circumstances and work with community agencies to deliver medical care,
instead of criminal convictions.
“It’s the matter of humanizing the law,” she said. “When you do that, the … forces in the courtroom shift.”
The book provides an unprecedented look inside the courtroom. In
it, Lerner-Wren tells one poignant and heartbreaking tale after another.
In one story, a mother having a mental breakdown walks out of her house
and into homelessness, leaving behind her husband, young children and
property she’d purchased after working 15 years as a restaurant manager.
In another, a woman spirals from wearing tailored suits and high-heel
shoes to getting caught in the rain wearing cardboard on her feet and
having an explosive confrontation with police. Lerner-Wren saw the
encounter as she drove past with her children. She recognized the woman,
and pulled over to help.
“I had a sinking feeling,” she wrote in the book. “She had been to
the mental health court years before and that hadn’t led to a healthier
life. Was there nothing I could do to help her?”
The questions and her actions that day paint a vivid picture
of Lerner-Wren and make one thing clear: This is a woman who never
chose between being a jurist and an advocate, because in her heart, she
is still both.
“She has done a job that no other judge in Broward County could have
done,” said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein. “When you are
blazing the path, when there is no blueprint, you have to make hundreds
of decisions every day. As far as I can tell, she took something that
never was and made it into something that everybody wants. And that’s
amazing.”
Before Lerner-Wren helped pioneer the mental health
court, Finkelstein described a cruel system for dealing with a
vulnerable population.
‘When you ask me if Judge Wren and the court has made a difference,
the difference is night and day,” he said. “The court has dramatically
changed the lives of thousands and thousands of people. … It was very
common to beat [mentally ill persons], throw them in a van, let them sit
in the heat and then drive at break-neck speeds around the county. That
was what the police used to call shake and bake. … It was cruelty for
cruelty’s sake.”
That started to change with a humanitarian keeping watch.
‘Abiding Belief’
Months after Lerner-Wren took the bench in 1997, Broward’s then-Chief
Circuit Judge Dale Ross tapped her to create the nation’s first Mental
Health Court.
The court was an outgrowth of a scathing grand jury report that described the county’s mental health system as “deplorable.”
Court administrators convened a task force, spearheaded by Judge Mark
A. Speiser and Finkelstein, who pushed for a system unlike any other in
the country.
“We literally took a court of law and we reversed it,” Lerner-Wren
said. “It moved individuals who were arrested on low-level crimes out of
an inappropriate system of care—the jail—into a more appropriate system
of health care.”
Since then, Broward has become the national model, and Lerner-Wren has earned widespread recognition and credit for helping to replicate the effort across 250 mental health courts across the U.S.
But at the time, Lerner-Wren had just finished a stint as guardian
and had worked as counsel tasked with protection and advocacy through
the agency that later became Disability Rights Florida. The chief judge
thought she was the right fit for the pioneering venture.
“It was as if all these pieces somehow conflated,” Lerner-Wren said.
“We thought like painting a jet in mid-air, we would just figure it
out. I looked at it at the time as a leap of faith — a court of
conscience. If it didn’t work, at least the family members would know
that there was a judge who was standing up for them against the
injustices of mental illness.”
Some of the country’s foremost mental health experts and therapeutic
justice advocates partnered to support the fledgling venture.
“We have an abiding belief in recovery,” she said. “People diagnosed
with mental health conditions have the capacity to pursue their dreams
and their professional lives. They deserve dignity and are entitled to
the full breadth of their legal rights under the law. Every individual
has worth and should have the opportunity to reach their human potential
in this life within the community.”
Lerner-Wren said that she has never forgotten her work to benefit psychiatric patients.
“My time spent at the state hospital working on behalf of the
residents there, that was a difficult tour of duty,” she said. “This is a
healing tour of duty.”
MARK C. PSORAS / For The InquirerHeidi
Austin, with her father, Josef Wituschek, displays a photo of guardian
Gloria Byars from Byars’ Facebook page during an interview last year in
Wituschek’s home in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia.
Relatives of Edmund and Margareta Berg were shocked to learn, a
little more than a year ago, that the court-appointed guardian handling
the Fox Chase couple’s finances had a record of fraud, bad checks, and
forgery.
Around that time, Marie Frisby
began questioning the guardian appointed to help her husband, Hank. They
contend that his bills weren’t being paid and, as a result, they had to
sell their home in Wyncote, Montgomery County.
Meanwhile, Nu Vuong, a
naturalized U.S. citizen who doesn’t speak English, had been moved by
her guardian from her Kensington home to a Delaware County nursing
facility where no one spoke her language.
In each case, the guardian was the same woman, Gloria Byars of Aldan, Delaware County.
Questions about Byars’
financial management led judges to remove Byars last year as guardian of
the Bergs and Hank Frisby. She has since been removed from about 100
cases in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Delaware Counties.
The experiences of the Bergs, Frisby, and Vuong demonstrate how
well-meaning relatives can be swept away by a guardian who may not be
acting in a person’s best interests. And Byars’ criminal record
underscores what some advocates say is a broader issue: a lack of
oversight in a beleaguered system responsible for caring for thousands
of often elderly Pennsylvanians.
“We
do have a crisis with professional guardians,” Philadelphia Orphans’
Court Administrative Judge Matthew Carrafiello said at a February
hearing at which he ordered Byars removed from all her remaining
guardianships. “We just don’t have enough.”
Nationwide,
guardians oversee an estimated 1.3 million adults and $50 billion of
their assets, said Brenda Uekert, principal court research consultant at
the National Center for State Courts. And as the population ages, the
demand for them is likely to grow.
In
Philadelphia, about 6,800 adults are under guardianship care, many of
whom are overseen by family members. Five lawyers also regularly serve
as guardians, and others on an occasional basis, as well as about 17
non-attorney professional guardians, like Byars.
Any interested person or agency may petition a court to
appoint a guardian. A judge then holds a hearing to determine if the
person is “incapacitated” — unable to manage his or her own personal or
financial affairs. Once appointed, a guardian is paid through that
person’s assets or income. Their fees vary: Some could charge $100 an
hour, observers say, but they also could make much less overseeing a
poor client’s finances.
Guardians
must file with the court regular reports of the assets, income, and
expenditures they manage. But otherwise, they are generally left alone.
The
only legal requirement to become a guardian in Pennsylvania is the
ability to read and write in English. And that in turn opened the door
to applicants like Byars.
Philadelphia
judges appointed her to 93 cases from 2015 until last summer, in most
cases based on a recommendation by the Philadelphia Corporation for
Aging. The nonprofit, which provides home care to more than 21,000 and
helps thousands more through its tip line, is supposed to act as a
watchdog for the city’s most vulnerable citizens.
But
an attorney for the agency told a judge at a hearing last year that PCA
did not know about Byars’ convictions for fraud and bad checks — a past
that a simple Google search would have uncovered.
Abbey
Porter, an agency spokeswoman, declined to discuss why PCA had
recommended Byars and whether the agency had conducted a background
check. She wrote by email that PCA is “aware of the complexities and
challenges of the guardianship system, including the ‘vetting’ of
guardians.”
Byars,
57, has not been charged for her role in any guardianship cases. She
repeatedly has declined to speak to the Inquirer and Daily News, when
approached in person or through phone calls and letters left at her
office and home. Lawyers representing her also have declined to comment.
Diane
Menio, executive director of the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and
Interests of the Elderly (CARIE), in Philadelphia, said Byars’ record
shows agencies and courts need more due diligence in choosing guardians.
“Someone
convicted of financial crimes is certainly not someone who you want
managing an incapacitated person’s finances,” said Menio. “This whole
thing is based on trust.”
‘Unbelievable’
Court
records show that in 2005, Byars was charged in Virginia
with defrauding several people by using their discarded credit-card
convenience checks, fished out from post-office trash cans. She pleaded
guilty that October and was later sentenced to 37 months in federal
prison and ordered to pay $29,503 in restitution.
After
completing her term in December 2007, which included stints in a
halfway house and on home confinement, Byars, who had once lived in
Camden, moved to Delaware County. Her supervised release, which ended in
December 2010, barred her from working in a job that required her to
handle money or have access to financial accounts.
At some point, she began working for Robert Stump, a guardian and owner of RES Consulting in Havertown. According to one LinkedIn account, she worked there from 2008 to 2016. Stump did not return calls seeking comment.
The
same LinkedIn account says Byars received an associate of arts degree
in business administration from Kaplan University in 1981. A spokeswoman
for Kaplan, headquartered in Chicago, said the university, which offers
online courses, has no record of Byars’ taking classes.
In 2016, Byars branched out on her own, opening Global Guardian Services in Lansdowne, Delaware County.
That
Dec. 6, Byars was appointed guardian for the Bergs, upon PCA’s
recommendation. The couple, both in their 80s, didn’t want to leave
their house on Borbeck Avenue, which they bought in 1961, relatives
said.
But
in late December, Margareta Berg was discharged from a hospital and —
without the knowledge of her brother, Josef Wituschek — moved to a
Montgomery County rehab facility. A panicked Wituschek and his daughter,
Heidi Austin, then tried to call Byars, only to learn that she was in
Spain, they said.
That
January, Byars moved the Bergs into a Montgomery County nursing home,
then in February 2017 had their Fox Chase house cleaned out to sell it.
An
accounting filed by Byars last year said she collected $4,487.50 in
guardianship fees from the Bergs from January to July, a sum that
consisted of monthly fees of $100 or $200, plus $2,000 for her to
oversee the two-day cleanout of their house. (It’s unclear how much she
made from all of her guardian cases, but court records show that she
finally paid off her restitution in the federal fraud case by February
2017.)
After Byars sought court approval to sell the house, Wituschek hired a
lawyer. Attorney Daniel McElhatton learned that the company Byars had
hired to clean the house, DEPCO LLC, was owned by Byars’ husband, Leon
DeShields.
Mark C. Psoras / For The Inquirer
Heidi
Austin displays a photo on her phone of her aunt and uncle,
Margareta
and Edmund Berg, as her father, Josef Wituschek (center),
stands with
her. At right is Wituschek’s attorney, Daniel McElhatton.
The
lawyer says he found it “unbelievable” that Byars didn’t disclose the
conflict of interest. He opposed the sale of the house and an $11,000
payment to DEPCO, alerted Orphans’ Court Judge John Herron to Byars’
criminal convictions, and asked the judge to remove her as guardian.
At
a hearing in July 2017, Herron scolded Byars for failing to disclose
the conflict and for not getting his approval to pay DEPCO. “It was
self-dealing and should not have happened, and it should be refunded
immediately,” the judge said.
McElhatton
also questioned thousands of dollars in other withdrawals Byars had
made from the Bergs’ accounts. Byars said she paid $5,000 in cash to the
Bergs’ nursing home, but didn’t get a receipt – a step Herron called
“negligent” and “reckless.”
Herron
ordered Byars removed as the Bergs’ guardian and as guardian of 31
other active cases. He appointed Wituschek as successor guardian for the
Bergs. Wituschek had previously not been able to serve because he was
mourning the death of his wife.
Byars
has since reimbursed the Bergs the $11,000 paid to her husband’s
cleaning company, $5,200 for an unexplained cashier’s check she wrote
from their account, and an additional $900 she collected from an auction
of valuables from the cleanout of the Bergs’ house. The family is still
questioning other expenses and items they suspect are missing.
At
the July hearing, Byars’ then-attorney Robert Feliciani III, said she
had 113 active guardianships, mostly in Philadelphia and Montgomery
County.
Sam
Brooks, an elder law attorney at Community Legal Services of
Philadelphia, said other professional guardians at times carry caseloads
as large or larger. A manageable caseload is closer to 40, he said, but
to make a profit, guardians deal in volume, he said.
“There’s
no money in it, for the most part, unless you have a person who’s
incapacitated who has a substantial estate,” said Menio, the advocacy
center director.
Guardians
can still make money from low-income clients. They are assured $100 a
month if the person is in a nursing home and receives medical
assistance. They also can petition the court to sell a person’s house,
then request compensation from the sale.
Billed for a birthday party
Hank
Frisby was a Philadelphia police officer from 1960 to 1980, rising to
the rank of sergeant. He then served full time in the Pennsylvania Air
National Guard, and later in Montgomery County’s human resources
department.
In
early 2016, though, he was separated from his wife, Marie. After a
nurse who was taking care of him at his Wyncote home suspected he was
being abused by a relative, the nurse contacted the Montgomery County
Office of Aging and Adult Services.
That
March, Montgomery County Senior Judge Stanley Ott deemed Hank Frisby
incapacitated after finding that he suffered from dementia and had
problems paying his bills. The Office of Aging had recommended Stump’s
company, RES Consulting, and Byars, who at the time was still working
for Stump, was appointed his guardian, court records show.
While
the Frisbys agree that his finances weren’t in the best of shape, they
say that in the ensuing months, Byars didn’t pay his mortgage,
real-estate taxes, or income taxes.
But
she threw him a birthday party. In June 2016, he was invited to a party
that Byars threw for him and other clients at her home. The party
included an ice cream truck, a live band, food, alcohol, and boxes of
sheet cake, including one for him, Hank Frisby said.
“I didn’t know anybody there,” Hank Frisby, now 79, said in an interview. “I stayed a couple of hours and left.”
He thought it was nice, he said, until he later saw a $750 charge on his account for being at the party for six hours.
Later
that year, the Frisbys reunited, and Marie Frisby realized the state of
his finances. In December 2016, their house was targeted for
foreclosure.
Julie Shaw/Staff
Hank and
Marie Frisby in March 2018 in their Philadelphia apartment, where they
moved after having to sell their Montgomery County house.
They sold the house in May, then moved to the River Park section of Philadelphia.
Marie
Frisby, 70, said she has seen no indication of how Byars spent her
husband’s pension checks, totaling $80,000 a year, to his benefit —
except once, when she bought a stair lift for him at the Wyncote house.
She also said Byars wouldn’t let her see her husband’s bank statements.
“We had no charges about how much she paid anybody, just her fees on what she charged us to do for us,” she said.
Concerned,
she had filed a petition in court to have Byars removed as guardian,
contending Byars was failing to pay her husband’s bills. With the help
of a lawyer, Diane Zabowski, the Frisbys got Byars replaced as guardian
in June.
State
Sen. Art Haywood, the Democratic minority chair of the Aging and Youth
committee, said Thursday that Marie Frisby will be meeting April 5 with a
staffer in his office to see if there is any recourse for her husband.
Haywood, a former Wyncote neighbor of the Frisbys, said he found it
“outrageous” that they had to sell their home.
Haywood,
who represents parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia, said his
staff is looking into the process of how guardians are appointed and
removed.
‘My mom is not a prisoner’
Vuong’s
son, Hue Quach, experienced similar outrage. On May 26, 2016, Byars was
appointed Vuong’s guardian. A week later, she transferred Vuong, then
73, to a Delaware County nursing home without telling her son.
Courtesy of family
Nu Vuong
“Not
only did she put my mom in this [nursing home] without telling me, she
prohibited me from going in and seeing my mom” without Byars’
permission, he said in an interview.
Quach
said his mother cried when he was allowed to visit her because no one
in the nursing home could understand her — she speaks Vietnamese and
Chinese.
He said he told Byars: “‘My mom is not a prisoner. She did nothing wrong.'”
Quach
then petitioned the court to be his mother’s guardian. At a July 2016
hearing, Judge George Overton appointed Quach co-guardian. Quach then
moved his mother to a South Jersey nursing home that has staff and
residents who speak Chinese.
Byars has since been removed from that case — and the others in surrounding counties.
The
final two removals came March 20 in Delaware County. The Orphans’ Court
clerk there, Mary Walk, said the office began reviewing Byars’ cases
after learning about her removals in other counties, but found no
evidence of malfeasance in the two cases.
At
the February hearing, Carrafiello, the Philadelphia Orphans’ Court
administrative judge, had said he was unaware of any malfeasance in
Byars’ caseload in his court. But he stripped her from the cases because
he concluded she was no longer up to the task of being a guardian.
Montgomery County officials declined to discuss why she was removed from cases there.
Calls for improvement
Unlike 18 other states, Pennsylvania does not require professional guardians to undergo criminal background checks.
A state Supreme Court Elder Law Task Force had
in November 2014 recommended that all guardians be required to undergo
criminal background checks in a wide-ranging report that examined
problems in the guardianship system, issues of elder abuse and neglect,
and access to the justice system for elders.
That decision would fall to the state’s Supreme Court justices. The court’s Orphans’ Court Procedural Rules Committee at
an April 20 meeting will be considering the issue of instituting
background checks, said Northampton County Orphans’ Court Judge Emil
Giordano, a committee member. His county already bars felons from
serving as professional guardians.
State Rep. Mark
Gillen (R., Berks) said in a March 23 interview that he soon would
introduce a bill requiring criminal background checks for prospective
guardians and prohibiting felons from serving.
Other legislators
also have been trying to improve the system. State Sen. Stewart
Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, last
year reintroduced a bill that would, among other things, require court
approval for any guardian fees.
Keelin S. Barry, a
Philadelphia lawyer who served on the task force and whose office
provides guardianship and elder law services, said “there is a huge
shortage” of people willing to serve as guardians, but a great need.
“The elderly population
has exploded,” said Barry, who was appointed to replace Byars as
guardian for Hank Frisby. “And people who in the past would have taken
care of their older family member, now have moved across the city or
across the country and are not able to take care of that person
anymore.”
SANTA
FE – State Auditor Wayne Johnson today says he’s honored to join a task
force with the New Mexico Supreme Court and representatives from
throughout state government to bring sunshine and accountability to New
Mexico’s adult guardianship system.
The
task force Johnson has joined is charged with implementing newly passed
legislation for improving the adult guardianship system.
Family
members and advocates have complained for years about a process
shrouded in secrecy that can take advantage of incapacitated adults,
including the possibility of fraud and the systematic siphoning away of
an individual’s life-savings.
“Implementing
some type of audit system in the guardianship program just makes sense
for people who are relying on strangers to manage their life-savings and
expend it responsibly on their behalf,” Johnson said. “I strongly
believe in openness and transparency in government spending. I think a
similar standard applies when a judge orders a guardianship for someone
who doesn’t have the ability to manage their own affairs. I’m committed
to working with New Mexico families, judges, legislators, and anyone
else with a stake in our guardianship program, to safeguard our seniors
and other vulnerable adults.”
The full announcement of the guardianship committees can be found here.
The Albany County Attorney’s office is trying to get ahead of the
curve of a new state statute that was made effective Jan. 1, aimed to
protect residents from elder abuse, or vulnerable adult abuse.
Albany
County prosecuting attorney Peggy Trent said Gov. Matt Mead assembled a
taskforce to look into preventing elder abuse in the state. The
findings from the taskforce were used to revise the Uniform Power of
Attorneys Act to protect residents against elder abuse, she said.
“Gov.
Mead set up a taskforce some time in 2016, and it is my understanding
that this taskforce was looking at how we can better address the issues
our elderly are facing,” she said.
“As
a result of that, the taskforce came together and proposed some
revisions to our current Wyoming statutes that they felt would better
guide and assist law enforcement and the public to assist elderly people
in our community.”
Trent and Albany County Sheriff Dave O’Malley
attended a training in 2017 to help identify and prosecute instances of
elder abuse using information gathered by the taskforce, she said. After
the training, Trent said she thought of ways the county could prepare
for preventing of these types of abuses, and enforcing laws aimed at
protecting vulnerable adults.
“I was watching what the state
report was saying, and we want to be ahead of the curve,” Trent said.
“After training on (elder abuse) and learning of the committee, it was
my intent that maybe we need to look in Albany County if this is an
issue and how we would go about addressing it.”
There were few
cases of elder abuse in the past few years, but she predicted the
problem is more common than reports suggest, she said. Because of the
lack of elder abuse reports, the attorney’s office is putting together a
vulnerable adult initiative to help individuals who might not be
reporting abuse, Trent said.
“I have seen maybe two or three cases
(of elder abuse), statistically we know there is more exploitation of
vulnerable adults out there in our community but it is not getting
reported,” she said. “I don’t know if people completely recognize it at
times, so this is an initiative that I wanted to start addressing to see
what needs to be addressed.”
Information provided by the National Council on Aging states about
one in 10 Americans — over the age of 60 — have experienced some form of
abuse, of those only one in 14 cases are reported to authorities. About
60 percent of elder abuse and neglect incidents are committed by a
family member, the council information states.
Albany County’s
initiative would encourage residents to make a report if they or someone
they know is experiencing the abuse, while providing law enforcement
with the tools to better identify different signs of abuse, Trent said.
“We
discussed getting the same mechanisms in place that we have for child
protection services,” she said. “All of the service providers come
together (and discuss) how they can help vulnerable adults in our
community and provide service to avoid them becoming part of our
system.”
