"The Unforgivable Truth" to be Screened at the 2019 Whistleblower Summit August 1st

The Elder Abuse Reform Now Project (The EARN Project)' documentary, The Unforgivable Truth, will be screened at the Library of Congress, James Madison Building, Thursday, August 1 from noon to 1:30 pm, in connection with The Whistleblower Film Festival which accompanies the annual Whistleblower Summit in Washington, DC..

The Unforgivable Truth / United States (Filmmaker: Sharon de Lobo) - The Unforgivable Truth' is a quality film initially showcasing military servicemen having sacrificed life and limb to secure the rights and protections of surviving widows, children and others, but then quickly reveals that those survivors have become a victimized population of elderly and offspring suffering at the hands of guardianship and sophisticated financial exploitation schemes. The emotional accounts of isolated victims, their descendants and certain associates appear sincere and truthful. The accounts of the so-called trusted caregiver are no less than bewildering. Comprehensive coverage of the drawn out exploitation of the Kibbee family dynasty by the daughter and a team of professionals examining the facts surrounding the efforts of First Interstate Bank to frustrate Mercedes Kibbee's expressed wishes that her ranch and other assets be used for underprivileged children and that her daughter Sharon be present and involved in meetings discussing the formation of a foundation to carry out those wishes is compelling and infuriating.

"The Whistleblower Summit is unique because it combines legislative advocacy, public policy discussions with community and social events. During the conference we have panel discussions, press conferences, award presentations, receptions, luncheons, dinner, movie night, book signings, etc." - Marcel Reid, Whistleblower Summit Festival Director.

The Whistleblower Summit recognizes that cinema is a powerful medium for highlighting civil and human rights violations across the globe. It seeks to shine a light on stories of courage and perseverance in the face of injustice, and to encourage individuals to stand together to achieve human rights for all.

We are proud to stand and applaud our fellow elder abuse/guardianship advocates at The EARN Project and congratulate them for this special recognition and honor!

Source:
Whistleblower Summit by Michael McCray Film Festivals

Join The EARN PROJECT

From The Silver Standard’s Elder Abuse Reform Now Project: The Changing Face of Joan

By Joan Hunt

The thing I miss the most about being a younger person is supple skin. The face that looks back at me in the mirror has all the same features, but the skin doesn’t seem to fit around them quite as nicely as it used to. There is a little excess around the chin and wrinkles around the eyes that look like they don’t exactly know what to do with themselves.

Men often handle this problem by growing a mustache and a beard. Women are stuck with plastic surgery, injections, or extraordinary makeup. Being averse to the physical and financial pain inflicted by the first two choices, I had to find a makeup regimen that could keep me from cringing when I look in the mirror.

Now here’s the conundrum. As a woman ages, it takes more makeup to make her look good, but at the same time any amount of makeup is more obvious on more mature skin. What to do? Well, fortunately my eyesight isn’t as good as it once was, and for a while it worked to just not look too closely at my face in the mirror. But it was getting harder to put what makeup I did wear on my face because I couldn’t see what I was doing. So, I bought a magnifying mirror. Big mistake!

I immediately called my youngest daughter, who is a makeup artist, and begged for help. If she could make a normal person look like the Frankenstein monster, might not the reverse be true? She laughed at me and fit me into her schedule for the following week.

Hillary does a lot of weddings, and she shared that one of the biggest challenges she has is working with the mother of the bride. First, they are emotional because their daughter has chosen a life partner that isn’t her. Second is the rite of passage. Mom’s role now includes her in the older generation, and most of us have a little trouble being relegated to the back seat. And beyond that, most women in this age group haven’t changed their “look” or their makeup regimen for over a decade.

They end up being very grateful for my daughter, because she has targeted mature skin as one of her specialties. And she works with them until they are comfortable with their new look.

“So, why have you let your own mother walk around looking like a stegosaurus all these years?” I ask her. Apparently, she has been giving me hints and tips all along, but I wasn’t taking them seriously. Now I am.

Just a few quick tips to share what I have learned. Moisturizer is essential, both at night and under makeup during the day. Let it soak in before applying makeup. Next is the foundation primer, which prepares the skin for the makeup. Liquid is best, applied with an egg (a little egg-shaped sponge that retails for about $20). I am still unsure how often to wash this little gem, but I think it should be dry during application.

Foundation makeup needs to be the exact right shade, and it is worth spending a little more on this because it makes all the difference. Then liquid blush, not too much, blended on the top of cheekbones with the egg, followed by a highlighter just above that and leading around the outside of the eyes to make them pop.

My eyebrows have become thin and curly. An interesting challenge. We draw little lines along the shape of the brow, blend the foundation into them, and then blend with a brush. A little liquid eyeliner, then two applications of mascara to pump up the three eyelashes I have on each eye. Fake ones would be better, but I don’t have the patience. Lip liner, followed by gloss on the bows and on the under lip to plump them out. Spray entire face with a setting spray. And voila!

Sounds like I would look like Tammy Faye Bakker by now, remember her? But applied subtly and by the right hands, this is transformational. The idea is that it takes more to look like less. But yes, there is a downside. It cost me hundreds of dollars to acquire the high-end makeup items it requires, and in my inexperienced hands I need to start around 9 a.m. to look good by noon.

I will continue working on the techniques, and eventually I am sure it will become second nature. In the meantime, I am grateful to have a daughter who possesses this great information and talent. And on the days that I don’t have time to enhance my natural look, I remember what my grandmother told me when she started to get wrinkles and a sagging jawline.

“Smile,” she said. “It takes ten years off your face. And people will always be happy to see you.”

Full Article & Source:
From The Silver Standard’s Elder Abuse Reform Now Project: The Changing Face of Joan

From The Silver Standard’s Elder Abuse Reform Now Project: WHO WILL BE YOUR GUARDIAN?

By Marcia Southwick, NASGA

At last, the abuses within the guardianship system are beginning to come to light!  The mistreatment of elders whose dignity is stripped by removal of rights is tragic and, in this country, it is happening in epidemic proportion.

Nearly every week now, new articles are appearing about professional guardians who financially abuse the people they are supposed to protect.  Both The New Yorker and The New York Times have done excellent articles—we hope other News outlets, especially TV, with 24 hours of air time each day and the myriad talk shows, will follow their lead. This is a subject, and Financial Elder Abuse, which is often achieved through the use of guardianship, must be at the top of the list of subjects that are unquestionably “in the public interest”.

No Adult is more vulnerable than a person held in guardianship. Their entire right to be heard or to fight back has been eradicated by the court. Under current law in many states, a protected person is denied the right to enter into a contract with another person or business, leaving them unable to engage a lawyer to help them seek protection. With a “court-crony” guardian appointed to act "in your best interest," rather than a lawyer of your own choosing by your side, aren't you a sitting duck if something goes wrong? The answer is a resounding YES. What if the guardian assigned to you is a person whose only interest is in exploiting those under his or her control?

In 2013, AARP stated that it's "best guess" estimate was that there were 1.5 million American adults under guardianship—You can be sure that number is much larger in 2019.

The public is beginning to see how dangerous this system of protection can be. Leaving innocent people vulnerable to abuse is inexcusable. What if your guardian isn't a cruel greedy person, just lazy or not very bright? The potential is always there for exploitation of an elder's estate simply by lack of oversight.

No one is looking over the shoulders of these "professionals" who the courts put in control of people’s assets and life altering decisions. Families frequently walk into this situation unintentionally by going to court, thinking that they'll get help for their elder loved one during family conflict.  But once the door closes behind a guardianship proceeding, anything can happen, leaving lives broken and scattered.

The public really has no understanding of the nature of these proceedings--they can, and frequently do, happen without witnesses or testimony—except the testimony of a lawyer who stands to make money if the guardianship is put in place. The guardians charge ridiculous fees ($100 to open the mail) and spend like there is no tomorrow. The elder's assets can be easily depleted by professionals without accountability, a problem that has turned this cottage industry into a shameful money grab. In New Mexico, researchers are just beginning to go through court records to figure out just how many guardianships there really are in that state. There are no systematic, central records.  Can you imagine? Guardians and conservators are let loose with people's money and entire lives without having a degree in finance or any special training in investments or healthcare. In fact, in many states, according to the Center for State Courts, there are no statutes that require real training, and only 13 states require criminal background checks. See http://www.eldersandcourts.org/Guardianship/Qualifications-of-Guardianships.aspx

Frequently the judge will not insist that a guardian account for every penny of the ward’s money spent. The guardians just keeps spending and charging and spending and charging.

Idaho and Minnesota are the only states keeping track of the money that is under the control of guardians or conservators; The combined total is over $1 billion. It is frightening to think how much it is nation wide.

Theoretically (and something like this actually happened to someone I know) you (the ward) might be a PhD who needs a little help, yet you could end up under the thumb of a college dropout with only the assurnce that he or she isn't a convicted felon to protect you. (How would they know if the courts don't perform criminal background checks?) My friend wasn't allowed to look at his own bank statements, even though he was in the business of finance, and, in two years, the guardianship fees and expenses added up to approximately $2 million. Think about it—that's $2,700 a day!  What about the qualifications of those who are handling this money? They were less qualified than he. Instead of being restricted to his house with aides watching his every move and monitoring anyone who visited, he could have been living at the Ritz with room service and fresh sheets every day!  The absurdity of this situation—and it exists in many of these guardianship cases.

THE GUARDIANSHIP SYSTEM HAS BECOME ALL ABOUT MONEY IT'S A RIP-OFF.

Here is one of many cases that breaks my heart.  Every so often, I post a video of New Yorker Dorothy Wilson, in her 80's, trapped by her guardian in a nursing home. The post has gone viral, with over 60,000 views and hundreds of comments expressing sympathy.  She looks directly into the camera and describes her plight as she becomes more and more upset. At the end, she is weeping and begging to go home. Why should an elderly person be removed from her own home by a court professional and thrown into a nursing home she hates?  Dorothy wasn't allowed to leave the facility to see her family. Instead, she was forced to eat Thanksgiving in the dining room, nearly empty because nursing home residents who are not wards of a guardian are perfectly free to spend as much time as they wish to spend with friends and family. Elders in guardianship, by contrast, are often isolated and restricted from all but very limited access to family. Even a Power of Attorney without a guardian can cause a person to lose much of their independence (see note) Dorothy died within three months of forced placement by the guardian.

Dorothy ended up in guardianship due to a family conflict. Her daughter Diane, describes the shock of finding out that a professional guardian has complete and final control over every aspect of her mother's life.  "On August 22, 2011, the guardian, Mary Giordano, along with a caseworker in Plainview, NY, went to my mother’s house and told her they were taking her to the hospital for a problem she had with her recent surgery. That is the only reason she willingly got in the car. Instead, they took her to Meadowbrook Care Nursing Home in Freeport, a sub-standard nursing home with substantiated reports of abuse, and registered her there as a resident. This location isolated Mom from her family, friends,and healthcare providers."  So many seniors don’t know the guardian and the court has prohibited family and friends from visiting. So, they sit all alone in a strange place, their life slipping by, and wondering why their family has abandoned them.

Listen to Dorothy Wilson’s pleas for help at the end of this video and you will weep to see what it is like to be under a guardianship with no control over your life. She feels as if she's in prison without having committed a crime. (In another video, she says that precisely). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhOWppokCrQ

If Dorothy isn't an example of someone who has been abused by this system, no one is.  Something needs to be done for people in this situation, and it needs to be done now!  10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day and every one of them has a target on their back—With a lifetime of hard-earned savings and insurance to plunder, they have exactly what these for-profit professionals want: they only have to ensnare them in the benevolent net of “just wanting to help" or " just wanting to do what's in their best interest". If you are a baby boomer, be aware that you too can easily become a far lesser version of the person you are at this moment—a person with rights to come and go freely, a person entitled to spend your own money as you wish, and a person with the power to live where you want and see who you want.

Educate your children about what family conflict could do to you and their future. Judges have a way of saying, "I don't go out looking for people to put into guardianship. The cases come to ME."  They've got a point—so, for now, the only REAL remedy for Boomers is to stay out of court if at all possible.

Full Article  & Source:
From The Silver Standard’s Elder Abuse Reform Now Project:  WHO WILL BE YOUR GUARDIAN?

Once a Soldier....ALWAYS a Soldier

Every year, NASGA likes to post this picture for Veterans' Day as we believe it says it all better than any graphic we've ever seen. 

Our elderly Veterans gave their youth to service of our country.  Now they need our country to protect them as they face a new enemy.  This time the enemy is elder and guardianship abuse.

We are delighted to see this wonderful picture memorialized in cake!

Pause today and give thanks to our Veterans!

See Also:
Watch "The Unforgivable Truth" documentary
NASGA: Veterans in Peril The Elder Abuse Reform Now Project (The EARN Project)

THOSE ARE OUR PARENTS YOU ARE IGNORING

From The Elder Abuse Reform Now's "The Silver Standard News"
The Systematic understaffing of America's nursing homes.

By Joan Hunt

Most Nursing Homes Have Overstated Staffing for Years
 
A recent analysis by the New York Times and Kaiser Health News confirms what many families of nursing home residents have long suspected—staffing is often inadequate to provide proper care for their loved ones. Records show the number of nursing aides fluctuates significantly from day to day, with particularly large deficits occurring on weekends. In fact, on the lowest-staffed days, personnel take care of twice as many residents as they do on the highest-staffed days.

The analysis is based on a newly implemented system of documenting staff numbers in nursing homes, which has been designed to provide greater accuracy. Thus, records for the first time reveal the extent and magnitude of personnel deficiencies in facilities across America. Approximately 70 percent of 14,000 nursing homes have lower staff numbers than the previous system reported. The average staffing decrease is 12 percent. Records also show that on weekends, 11 percent fewer nurses and 8 percent fewer aides are on duty.

Federal law doesn’t mandate a minimum staff-to-patient ratio. The only requirement is that a registered nurse be on site eight hours a day and that a licensed nurse be on site at all times in certified nursing homes. Data from the last quarter of 2017 disclose that one fourth of the facilities had no registered nurse at work.

Previous Nursing Home Rating System Misled Consumers

Since 2009, Medicare had used a nursing home rating system that assigned from one to five stars to each facility based largely on three criteria. Two of the criteria were derived from unverified self-reported data. Because no procedure was in place to validate the data, it could paint an inaccurate picture of staffing levels.

While the remaining criterion came from annual health inspections conducted by independent reviewers, this assessment could be manipulated. It was possible for nursing homes to anticipate the inspection and temporarily schedule more staff during that time, thus enabling them to inflate their staffing numbers. After the inspection was finished, the staffing would return to its inadequate level. Consequently, the ratings failed to reflect reality, and consumers were misled.

New Nursing Home Rating System Has Greater Accuracy

Now, due to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which has only recently been implemented, data on nursing home staffing is more accurate. Instead of coming from self-reports, it’s based on daily payroll records. The discrepancies between earlier staffing records and the new records provide evidence that staffing levels reported over the last ten years have been exaggerated. The data shows that even facilities with good Medicare ratings for staffing have shortages in nurses and aides on some days.

Despite the more reliable method of determining staff numbers, the new rating system still has some drawbacks. Medicare assigns stars to facilities by comparing one nursing home to another, which is, in effect, grading on a curve. Therefore, many facilities have kept their ratings, even though payroll records show they have lower staffing levels than previously reported. Although the ratings can be found on Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare website, they aren’t dependable indicators that a facility has enough staff to provide quality care.

Patient Advocacy Group Calls for Congressional Hearings

After the recent report in the New York Times, an advocacy group known as the Elder Justice Coalition (EJC) called for immediate congressional hearings on chronic nursing home staff shortages. Group members are specifically concerned that the shortages have gone unnoticed up until now.

“We’re asking Congress to take a good hard look at staff shortages,” said the coalition’s national coordinator, Bob Blancato, in an interview with the Silver Standard News. “The new system may not be living up to expectations. Perhaps after clarification there could be legislation that would come forward.

“Several things need to be considered: number, quality, and training of staff. If part of the problem in attracting and keeping staff is due to wages that aren’t competitive with other types of medical facilities, this needs to be addressed. There has to be an incentive for people to want to go to work. The lack of workforce required to care for the aging population is a crisis that will be in front of us for years.”

Consequences of Understaffing

Understaffing is one of the causes that underlie elder abuse and neglect in nursing homes: reports NursingHomeAbuseGuide.org. Research shows that when staff are overworked and stressed, patients have a higher risk of bedsores, dehydration, malnutrition, weight loss, pneumonia, and infections. The exhaustion that accompanies working in short-staffed conditions can result in mistakes and failures to notice adverse changes in patients’ health. Moreover, frustration that comes from overwork can lead to intentional or unintentional mistreatment.

Tips for Choosing a Nursing Home

Because the current rating system doesn’t guarantee a nursing home is adequately staffed, families of the elderly should investigate candidate facilities thoroughly when the need for placement of a loved one becomes apparent. Assistive Living Today provides the following tips in choosing a home:

⋅    Instead of scheduling a visit, make a surprise visit to get an idea of cleanliness and quality of care. If the facility looks promising, make at least two additional trips to observe meals and activity sessions.
⋅    Check the public record for violations of state code. Note the type of complaints to see if they are related to serious issues.
⋅    Conduct research to see what licenses are required in your state, and ask the facility to show you its credentials.
⋅    Observe the residents to see if they appear happy, well-groomed, and actively engaged.
⋅    Pick a facility that doesn’t have a strong odor. Don’t be fooled by a strong deodorizer scent that may be masking the smell of urine and excrement.
⋅    Ask the facility if it has dieticians and if they can accommodate special dietary needs.
⋅    Since activities are important, inquire whether an activities director is on staff, and find out whether outdoor activities are included.
⋅    If your loved one has a condition requiring special care, such as Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes, ask if the staff has experience in these areas.

Full Article & Source:
THOSE ARE OUR PARENTS YOU ARE IGNORING

WATCH The Elder Abuse Reform Now's Documentary, THE UNFORGIVABLE TRUTH

The EARN Project website

The Elder Abuse Reform Project (The EARN Project): Margaret Meade

"NEVER DOUBT
THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL, COMMITTED CITIZENS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD;
INDEED, IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT EVER HAS."

Now, almost 100 years after Margaret Meade spoke those words, they are every bit as true. But now, though the organization may be small, it needs to be joined by many voices to be heard.

It can be very discouraging to be greeted by indifference when we try to enlist people's help in our campaign to end elder abuse in America. We just received a letter from a state first lady, who we had asked to speak up about this problem—she said she was too busy. Many simply do not believe it is that big of a problem or that, though it may happen to other people, it won’t happen to them. In fact, one out of every five of those people will have it happen to them and then they ask why this is allowed to happen. I can answer that question. It happens because you, and many like you, did nothing to help stop it - because you were indifferent to the suffering until it was your suffering.

Happily, there are others who care very much and jump right in to do what they can.

The EARN Project made a little poster for Elder Abuse Awareness Month and our wonderful volunteers, all over the country, printed them up and took them to local businesses. We even got a few pictures from two of those wonderful volunteers Angela Biggs and Kathy Dunn.

PHOTOS CREDITS:

Top Left: John Witte the owner of Sit n Sip Books in Mineral Wells Texas put our poster in his shop;
Top Center: Gerry Lamphier at the National Vietnam War Museum in Weatherford Texas holds up our poster that they put up in the museum;
Top Right: Holding the poster they put in the window of the Copper pot Restaurant downtown Clarksville Georgia;
Middle Left: The Attic restaurant in downtown Clarksville Georgia put the poster in their restaurant
Middle Center: Regions Bank in Clarksville GA;
Middle Right: Christine holding the poster and the sign in the window of Tinder's restaurant in downtown Clarkesville Georgia;
Bottom Left: Coz Whitten Skaife did a fund raiser for NASGA at her bakery Rosie's Coffee Bar and Bakery in Madison WI And she put up the EARN poster and gave away DVDs of our documentary;
Bottom Right: Owner of Garrett Jewelry and Loan in Mineral Wells Texas, Lisa Garrett and friends holding The EARN Elder Abuse Day poster she put up in her shop;
Also in Clarksville GA, though not pictured, the Midtown grill and Ingles grocery

Source:The Silver Standard News
The Unforgivable Truth
The EARN Project

All Judges Are Considerate, Measured, Conscientious, and Fair....Well...Almost All

In Houston, Texas, a judge has issued what amounts to a landmark ruling by permitting a wrongful death lawsuit against a probate judge, concerning an adult guardianship case, to proceed.

A woman sued the judge stating that her elderly mother, a ward of the state under guardianship, had suffered broken bones and a rapid decline, due to an order to discontinue her physical therapy thus causing her muscle problems to worsen and contributing to her malnutrition.

In addition, she claimed that the judge ignored requests for emergency relief, including a request made two days before the woman died. Clearly the judge did not exercise reasonable diligence in monitoring the guardians obligation to this woman.

This is a truly brave decision by Judge Rosenthal and can go a long way to help Texas with the problems they have been having with judges and guardianship cases.

A Probate Judge was admonished by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for referring to a proposed ward in a case before her as "Mr. Maggot" and "Maggot Man.” In April, the Texas Judicial Council admitted to the US Congress that nearly half of adult guardianship cases in the state are out of compliance with reporting requirements.

Texas Estates Code (TEC) specifically states that a judge is liable on a Judge's bond to those damaged if damage or loss results to a guardianship or ward because of the gross neglect of the judge to use reasonable diligence in the performance of the judge's duty under this subchapter.

“It creates a limited waiver of judicial immunity, allowing recovery for losses directly tied to the judge’s duties under the subchapter,” wrote Rosenthal in her decision.

Full Article and Source:
All Judges Are Considerate, Measured, Conscientious, and Fair....Well...Almost All

 See Also:
The EARN Project (Elder Abuse Reform Now)

The Unforgivable Truth

NASGA: Willie Jo Mills, TX Victim

All Judges are Considerate, Measured, Conscientious, and Fair.....Well... Almost All

*This is a Nation that has acknowledged it has a problem with elder abuse
*This is a Nation that has acknowledged the court system is not working where guardianship is concerned
*This is a Nation “For the People and By the People”

10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 each day and this will continue for many years to come. A good number of those Boomers will find themselves the subject of an application for guardianship. Many will need it and receive loving help while others are headed straight to hell. It is judges who sit between the seniors and their fate. Those seniors have a right to expect that the Judges will have thoroughly familiarized themselves with their cases and will make a decision based on an effort to do everything within reason to accommodate the desires of the seniors concerning their living circumstances, their finances, freedom of movement and association.

JUDICIAL ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY came into being in 1871 when Section 1983 was adopted, and our modern Supreme Court has upheld this rule even though history shows that even in 1871 only a minority of courts provided absolute immunity because it is not a good idea.

In making this decision, our modern court looked at functional considerations, such as how often an office holder was sued for money damages and how much these suits interfered with the function of the office. The Supreme Court exists to support the intentions of the Constitution; concerns of an overburdened court system should have played no part in their deliberation. Do we send a murderer straight to prison because 10 people saw him pull the trigger, there is no doubt that he is the murderer, and a trial will simply clutter up our already overburdened system?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness should never be the price we pay for a well-oiled court system. Human suffering should never be the price we pay for anything.

Full Article and Source:
The Silver Standard News: All Judges are Considerate, Measured, Conscientious, and Fair....Well... Almost All

 See Also:
The EARN Project

The Unforgivable Truth

The Elder Abuse Crisis in Progressive Minnesota

by David Holmburg

I’m from Minnesota, and you might call me a loyalist. All my life, I’ve taken pride in the state’s reputation as a citadel of progressivism. It’s produced an impressive roster of socially conscious politicians—Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, Orville Freeman—and ranks at or near the top among the fifty states in social services, education, and cultural advantages.

But these days in Minnesota, there lingers the stigmatizing taint of elder abuse—the shocking (especially to a Minnesotan) revelation by the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis that “each year, hundreds of Minnesotans are beaten, sexually assaulted, or robbed in senior care homes. Their cases are seldom investigated, leaving families in the dark.”

A 2010 study showed a six-fold increase in reported incidents in the state’s senior care facilities, which may have been a catalyst for a 2017 investigation by the Star-Tribune that uncovered another disturbing statistic: in 2015, “the Minnesota Department of Health received 25, 226 allegations of neglect, physical abuse, unexplained serious injuries, and thefts in state-licensed homes for the elderly.”

Said a board member of the Minnesota Elder Justice Center, Iris Freeman: “We should all be appalled at this picture. Minnesota used to be at the top of the heap when it came to elder-abuse enforcement, and now we’re becoming known for being non-responsive.”

But the state did mobilize its legislative, law enforcement, and senior care resources in response to the Star-Tribune’s investigation. It was a response you’d expect in a state with a strong collective instinct for change when change is demanded. It improved compliance standards, developed better programs for training and monitoring employees, and opened communications between law enforcement and other agencies.

“It haunts me,” her son, Robert, said two years ago of his mother’s assault, and her emotional suffering in the dwindling days of her life. “It haunts me.”

Eric Klang, the police chief in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, who investigated one of the worst elder-abuse cases in the state in recent years, told the Silver Standard: “Now elder abuse is on everybody’s radar. It’s on the news every night.”

An elder abuse advocate Susan Scheller said that while Minnesota still has less of a problem with elder abuse than many other states, “we expect a lot better.” Referring to the crisis in recent years that has only somewhat abated, she said, “This [situation] is not acceptable.”

The ultimate definition of “not acceptable’ in elder care—other than a suspicious death—is sexual assault. And that occurred on May 8, 2016, at an assisted-living complex called Heritage House, located in the northern Minnesota town of Pequot Lakes.

A 78-year-old resident of the facility named Jean Krause, a former nurse, was assaulted by David DeLong, 59, a caregiver at the facility, who had worked there for several years and had a clean record. DeLong was found that night by a female aide, a few feet from Ms. Krause, with his jeans and underwear at his knees. He was trying to pull them up.

No one at Heritage House called the police for two hours. DeLong, meanwhile, was sent home for the night.

Full Article and Source:
The Silver Standard News: The Elder Abuse Crisis in Progressive Minnesota

See Also:
The EARN Project (Elder Abuse Reform Now Project)

The Unforgivable Truth

Tonight on Marti Oakley's T. S. Radio: Abolishing Probate and Theft of Estates and Trusts

5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

Our guest tonight is Sharon De Lobo. Sharon produced the documentary: "The Unforgivable Truth"...the story of the theft of the family foundation ranch and funds. The entire Mercedes K. and Chandler H. Kibbee Foundation Fund and ranch were taken by the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association). Mercedes K. Kibbee wanted her ranch and her fortune to be put to good use and for her ranch to be used as a safe, happy place for disadvantaged children. Instead, bad actors such as First Interstate Bank intervened and converted the foundation and all its assets to their own purposes in the name of the YMCA.

Quoted from the legal documents signed by Mercedes,: "I never gave permission for the foundation to be structured in such a way so as to allow its board of directors to be compiled of a majority of people who are also on the YMCA board.". Documents signed December 12, 2006.

From the Kibbee Foundation Board of Directors, Jay McGuiness who is the Executive Director of the Sheridan YMCA is heard at approximately 1:21 mins into the video, responding to questioning saying, "We own it now! Every vehicle, every tool, every painting"....and he goes on.

Estate theft and theft of trusts is common place in the predatory world of elder abuse by professional people and supposedly respectable institutions and organizations. The most common method used is to levy false charges of incapacity against the elderly individual with assets, to then guardianize the elderly individual and begin plundering the estate.

JOIN The Elder Abuse Reform Now Project

READ The Silver Standard News

WATCH The Unforgivable Truth

LISTEN to the show live or listen to the archive later