Going Home: Linda Kaye Bous

Thanks to the sunshine of the Sarasota-Herald Tribune, Linda Bous was freed from guardianship and got to go home - unsure what she find when she got there, but knowing she wouldn't find her beloved pets, which were taken from her when she became a ward of the State of Florida:

Source:
Going Home:  Linda Kaye Bous"

See Also:
Woman in Guardianship Series "The Kindness of Strangers - Inside Florida's Guardianship Program" - is Freed!

Woman in Guardianship Series, "The Kindness of Strangers: Inside Elder Guardianship in Florida" is Free!

All the rights that most adults take for granted — to spend their own money, to travel, to vote, to marry, to enjoy dinner out at a Red Lobster — once again belong to Linda Bous.

Bous, 67, did not hesitate today when 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Charles Williams asked her if she wanted to say anything at the hearing to restore her rights and terminate a full adult guardianship of more than nine months. 

A small and soft-voiced woman born in Scotland, she spoke out clearly and briefly about the injustices she believes were done to her.

Distraught from her husband's death in January 2014, Bous had been found by a medical team to be lacking capacity to make her own decisions and was placed by her emergency temporary guardian in an assisted-living facility. In October, her desperate phone call to the Herald-Tribune set in motion the legal process that led to her freedom today. 

“It was a terrible loss, to lose my husband and best friend of almost 30 years,” Bous told the judge. “But if I had had my rights at that time, none of this would have happened.”

The Sarasota resident acknowledged that when someone from the Department of Children and Families visited her home, she was ill and needed assistance. But with help, she said, she could have handled the paperwork for her husband's estate and resumed her life without him.

Before today's hearing, Bous' court-appointed attorney, Marc Soss, returned her house keys and some identification cards. Williams ruled that Bous' guardian must provide a full accounting of all her belongings.

“The system does have checks and balances, and you have an excellent lawyer in Mr. Soss,” Williams told Bous, adding, “Good luck.”

Bous' former guardian, present with her attorney, also wished her luck when the hearing ended. Bous responded with a wry smile. But then she planted a kiss on the cheek of Soss as he gave her copies of documents in her case file — papers she had never been allowed to see.

Full Article and Source:
Woman in Guardianship Series is Free 
See Also:
Woman in "Kindness of Strangers:  Inside Elder Guardianship in Florida" May Get to See Her Home

Woman in "The Kindness of Strangers: Inside Elder Guardianship in Florida" May Get to See Her Home

Linda Bous, 67, has been living since May in a locked assisted-living facility where her court-appointed guardian placed her — but this could be the day her life begins to open up again.

In its December series, “The Kindness of Strangers: Inside Elder Guardianship in Florida,” the Herald-Tribune described her struggle to have her rights restored. Restricted to using the facility’s shared telephone and unable to retain a lawyer, she called the newspaper in October and asked for help.

This afternoon she is scheduled to leave her tiny room in the facility, and see her Sarasota home again for the first time in more than eight months.

No new documents have been filed in her case, but according to her court-appointed attorney, Marc Soss, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Charles Williams will waive the hearing to restore Bous’ rights, and a “joint stipulation” has been prepared in which her guardian would agree to a full restoration.
This would leave Bous once again in charge of her own destiny, free to begin the long process of reclaiming her assets and her personal life after more than nine months as a ward of the state. She hopes to live with her sister-in-law, Jane McElree, while she reassembles the pieces of her existence.

Since April — when she was still reeling from the death of her husband in January — Bous has been under guardianship, with no right to make decisions for herself. A court ruling declared her to be incapacitated after a hearing in June that she did not know she could attend, held after she had already been removed from the house she and her husband had shared.

Even now, it is not clear who owns the three-bedroom house on a quiet, leafy street in Sarasota. Bous’ husband of nearly 27 years — Joseph Anton Bous, a longtime coach in Sarasota schools — died at the age of 66, leaving no will, and the house is in his name. Bous’ guardian was made personal representative of his estate, which has not been settled.

Her husband’s death left Bous devastated for months, unable to eat properly or even pay the bills. Someone apparently placed an anonymous call to Adult Protective Services, the state agency charged with cases of elder abuse or neglect. Bous remembers a nice man who came by and arranged to have her electricity turned back on.

Bous said this fall that when she first talked with her court-appointed emergency guardian, Ellen Himes, her impression was that she was going to the facility for a few weeks’ rest and recuperation.

“We were sitting out in front of my house,” Bous recalled, “and she said, ‘There’s a place I know of and they have a room that’s open, and maybe you should go there just for a little while. It will help you feel better. Take a few clothes.’ ”

Himes said in December that she could not discuss Bous’ case specifically. But she said helping a ward make the transition from an unsafe environment often requires tact.

“I never tell them that they’ll never go back to their homes,” she said. “I try to guide them around it in a better way, like, ‘You’re going to go live in a resort now,’ as opposed to, ‘You’re not going back to your house because it’s too big and you can’t handle it anymore.’ ”

Bous says now that she worries about the condition she will find her house in, and what has become of her three cats.

Full Article and Source:
Woman in Guardianship Series May Get to See Her Home

Focus on guardianship reform

Too many elders in Florida denied due process 

State Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, has proposed legislation that she said would "put teeth" in Florida's current elder guardianship statute.

The plight of elder Floridians trapped in a guardianship system that can strip them of their rights, their finances and their dignity is finally receiving needed attention in the Legislature.

Bills that would reform the system -- whose abuses were detailed in a Herald-Tribune series "The Kindness of Strangers: Inside Elder Guardianship in Florida" -- have been filed in both the House and Senate.

These reform efforts deserve the support of both lawmakers and the public in the upcoming legislative session.

House Bill 5, drafted by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, would "put teeth" in Florida's current guardianship statute, Passidomo told the Herald-Tribune's Barbara Peters Smith.

"We're putting in the standards that guardians need to live up to," the legislator said.

Senate Bill 318, filed by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, would reduce the term of an emergency temporary guardian from 90 days to 60, and let a judge suspend an abusive guardianship by freezing a guardian's assets and imposing sanctions on guardians or their attorneys.

The two bills address some of the egregious abuses cited in the "Kindness of Strangers" series, written by Peters Smith.

As the series noted, Florida's guardianship statute "is considered one of the best in the world, but its practical application has been criticized by advocacy groups and elder law scholars as paternalistic, ruthless and even corrupt."

The series highlighted cases in which elders were swept into a court system (often with little or no warning) that quickly deemed them "incapacitated," taking away their ability to control their own lives.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Focus on guardianship reform

Health News Flordia: Elders Trapped by Guardianship

Florida's elder guardianship program is meant to help vulnerable elders.

But Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Barbara Peters Smith recently published a series that shows the rapidly expanding system run in Florida’s probate court system ignores the rights of some.

She spoke with Health News Florida Editor Mary Shedden about the year-long investigation.

BARBARA PETERS SMITH: The series is called “The Kindness of Strangers” -- and that’s a big fear that anybody would have that instead of living with their loved ones or somebody they trust, that they would end up at the end of their lives being not just cared for by strangers but having all their decisions made by somebody who essentially doesn’t know them.

MARY SHEDDEN: These were individuals who were living independently, maybe, went to the hospital for an operation and then things spiraled out of control. They’ve lost apartments, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars to legal fees.

SMITH: Yes, and I should say that some wards are able to live in their own homes. The (court-appointed) guardian decides what that ward can afford. When a guardian is appointed, he or she comes in and the first thing they do is have all of the mail come to them instead of the ward. Then they take over all the bank accounts. They  do an inventory and they liquidate all the assets. They sell the house, the car, everything. Then they decide how nice a place this ward can afford. Can there be home care? In some cases, there is home care, but it is not home care of the person’s choosing.

SHEDDEN: It truly is someone they’ve never known, that they don’t have relationship with, making decisions because of a family feud or because there is no one.

SMITH: The Florida statutes gives preference to families as guardians. But in 2003, there were I believe there were 23 professional guardians in the state. And now there are 440. It’s definitely a growth industry.

LISTEN to the entire interview

The Kindness of Strangers