NJ's Volunteer "The Guardianship Monitoring Program"

COURT HOUSE – Cape May County Surrogate M. Susan Sheppard endorses the program initiated by New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner on Jan. 30 that calls for volunteers to monitor the well-being of the elderly and disabled who rely on legal guardians to manage their financial and health-related decisions. Surrogate Sheppard said, “Volunteers are the foundation of this initiative - The Guardianship Monitoring Program will enable Attorneys, Accountants, Retired Professionals, Students and others to volunteer to assist and protect our most vulnerable residents. I look forward to developing this program in Cape May County.”

“As a society, we must protect those who are most vulnerable, it is our responsibility to ensure that those who have guardians appointed are well taken care of in Cape May County,” added Surrogate Sheppard. According to Census data, the population of elderly and disabled Americans will grow dramatically in coming years. Surrogate Sheppard stressed, “It is essential that we take steps now to protect those with guardians by increasing and enhancing the level of oversight of legal guardians.”

Surrogate Sheppard said, “Volunteers will work directly in my office and in Surrogate’s offices throughout the state to review guardian files and the annual reports.” Volunteers will receive detailed training from court staff on how to read and analyze the guardians’ annual reports and how to gather data for the new computer system. With the new database, missing or incomplete reports will be easier to identify. Volunteer monitors will flag inconsistent or incomplete financial information, which will be reported to judges for appropriate action.

The program is expected to be statewide by November 2013.

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Sheppard Wants Volunteer Guardianship Monitoring Program

Millions in Disability Housing Aid on Way

Nearly $98 million in rental assistance is headed to states to help thousands of people with disabilities live in the community.

The federal money is expected to fund 3,530 housing units in 13 states for people who require long-term services and supports to live independently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said this week. Housing agencies within the states are now working with Medicaid and Health and Human Services officials to identify very low-income individuals with disabilities who are in need of the rental assistance.

Federal officials say they expect many people receiving the new funds to be transitioning out of institutions.

“Our nation is strongest when all our citizens are able to fully participate and contribute,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. “This unique collaboration of federal and state agencies will enable thousands of Americans with disabilities to lead productive, meaningful lives in their communities.”

Full Article and Source:
Disability Scoop: Millions in Disability Housing Aid on Way

PA Attorney Accused of Federal Tax Fraud Pleads Not Guilty

A court-appointed attorney accused of federal tax fraud showed up in court and pleaded not guilty on Friday.

Danielle Ross is currently suspended from her job as the attorney who represents the interests of children in Lackawanna County family court.

Earlier this week, Ross was indicted on federal tax charges.

Ross and her attorney said they will fight the federal charges of tax evasion and filing false income tax returns.

She was suspended from her position of guardian ad litem in Lackawanna County court.

Guardian ad litem represents the interests of children in court in custody and visitation hearings.

Ross has worked on hundreds of those cases and some of the families were in court Friday. They claimed that Ross’s claims were biased and not based on facts and her billing was excessive.

Ross is facing charges that she did not pay taxes on the billings above her base salary.

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Attorney Accused of Federal Tax Fraud Pleads Not Guilty

See Also:
PA Lawyer Indicted for Tax Evasion

Making Grief a Mental Disorder

After the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved the latest version of its diagnostic bible, the DSM-5, psychiatrist Allen Frances, the former chair of the DSM-4 taskforce and currently professor emeritus at Duke, announced, “This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career of practicing, studying and teaching psychiatry” (“ A Tense Compromise on Defining Disorders”).

On Jan. 7, 2013 in “Last Plea to DSM-5:  Save Grief From the Drug Companies,"  Frances wrote, “Making grief a mental disorder will be a bonanza for drug companies, but a disaster for grievers. The decision is also self-destructive for DSM-5 and further undermines the credibility of the APA. Psychiatry should not be mislabeling the normal.”

In the DSM-4, which Frances helped create, there had been a so-called “bereavement exclusion,” which stated that grieving the loss of a loved one, even when accompanied by symptoms of depression, should not be considered the psychiatric disorder of depression. Prior to the DSM-5, the APA had acknowledged that to have symptoms of depression while grieving the loss of a loved one is normal and not a disease. Come this spring, normal human grief accompanied by depression symptoms will be a mental disorder. Psychiatry’s official diagnostic battle is over. Mental illness gatekeepers such as Frances who are concerned about further undermining the credibility of the APA have lost, and mental illness expansionists —psychiatry’s “neocons”— have won.

Full Article and Source:
Why Newest Psychiatric Diagnostic Bible Will Boon Big Pharma

Office of Aging director defends decision to move elderly couple from home

The county Office of Aging director said at a news conference Friday that her agency followed the law in removing an elderly couple from their East Petersburg home and placing them in a nursing home against their wishes.

Without addressing the case directly, executive director Jacqueline Burch outlined her agency's general process in protecting the elderly and said those unhappy with any result may ask county Judge Jay J. Hoberg for a review hearing.

"That can be done as informally as writing a letter to the judge," said Burch, who was joined by county Commissioner Scott Martin and other county officials.

After the press event, a self-appointed advocate on behalf of Nels and Irene Highberg, who are now confined to a Landisville nursing home, said he'll continue to investigate because he believes the law was not followed.

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Office of Aging director defends decision to move elderly couple from home

See Also:
Elderly Couple Removed From Longtime Home; Family, Friend Dispute Office of Aging Findings

PA Lawyer Indicted for Tax Evasion

A federal grand jury indicted the legal advocate for children in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania on charges of tax evasion and filing two false federal income tax returns stemming from her failure to report payments she received from parents.

Attorney Danielle Ross, who was appointed by the court to represent children in parent custody disputes since 2008, did not disclose to the IRS any of the income from the payments she received from parents in 2009 and 2010, according to the four-count indictment handed up in Scranton on Tuesday.

Full Article and Source:
Pennsylvania Lawyer Indicted for Tax Evasion

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sue Johnston was married to John for 46 years. Every Valentine's Day, he would send her flowers with the message: "My love for you grows." John passed away, and on Sue's first Valentine's day alone after his death, she still received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from John. When Sue called the florist about this delivery, the florist explained that before John passed away, he prepaid for many years and asked the florist to continue sending bouquets to Sue on Valentine's Day. The attached card on this first bouquet from beyond the grave read, "My love for you is eternal."

See Valentine's Gesture From Dead Husband to Wife Will Make You Melt, Huffington Post, Feb. 20, 2013.

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P.S. I Love You

Quiet deaths don't come easy

A study finds that Medicare patients near death are increasingly choosing hospice or palliative care over heroic measures in their last days — but that many go through futile hospitalizations and treatments first.

 

February 05, 2013|By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

 

For Americans with a terminal diagnosis, death increasingly comes in the places and ways they say they want it — at home and in the comfort of hospice care.

But for a growing number of dying patients, that is preceded by a tumultuous month in which they endure procedures that are often as invasive and painful as they are futile.

New research finds that the proportion of Medicare patients dying in hospice care nearly doubled from 22% in 2000 to 42% in 2009, an apparent bow to patients' overwhelming preference for more peaceful passings free of heroic measures. At the same time, though, many of those patients were treated aggressively until days before death seemed inevitable.

Based on the medical and death records of almost 850,000 Medicare patients, the study, published in Wednesday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., paints a picture of increasing commotion in the final weeks of patients' lives.

The patients in the analysis all suffered from the end stages of chronic diseases such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or dementia. But thousands of them endured multiple hospitalizations and treatments before receiving care aimed solely at making their final days comfortable.

During the decade studied, the proportion of patients who spent part of their last month in an intensive care unit grew from 24% to 29%, and the percentage who were hooked to a ventilator rose from 8% to 9%. Among dying patients, the median number of disruptive moves — for example, from nursing home to hospital, from hospital to hospice, from rehabilitation facility to home — grew from 2.1 to 3.1. Among those who spent their final days in a hospice program, 28% were there for under four days.

"I suspect this is not what patients want," said Dr. Joan Teno, a palliative care physician and professor of health services policy and practice at Brown University, who led the study.

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Quiet deaths don't come easy

Lokuta sues former judges over removal from bench

Deposed former Luzerne County Judge Ann H. Lokuta, silent for more than 15 months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her appeal, re-emerged with a vengeance Wednesday, firing a federal civil rights lawsuit at the colleagues and officials she said conspired to oust her from the bench.

Lokuta, the first woman to sit on the Luzerne County bench, filed the lawsuit in an attempt to reverse a state judicial discipline panel's ruling four years ago that removed her from office, stripped her state-funded medical benefits, life insurance and vested pension, and precluded her from holding future judicial office. Lokuta, 59, also asked for unspecified monetary damages.

Lokuta and her attorneys, George A. Michak and Ronald V. Santora, reiterated in the lawsuit her long-held contention that former county president Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan orchestrated her removal because she cooperated with federal investigators probing their pocketing of $2.8 million in payoffs from the backers of a pair of for-profit detention centers.

Lokuta claimed the former judges testified against her before the state Court of Judicial Discipline to punish her for continuing to speak to federal agents. The former judges, she said, used their influence over courthouse personnel to persuade more than two dozen other witnesses to substantiate allegations Lokuta showed up late for court, berated attorneys and court staff members and misappropriated county resources.

"Lokuta was subject to relentless intimidation and retaliation by (Conahan and Ciavarella), particularly Conahan, as they controlled the Luzerne County Courthouse as their private domain and crushed anyone who failed to follow their directives," the lawsuit said.

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Lokuta sues former judges over removal from bench

See Also:
Lokuta's Last Shot at Reinstatement