Saturday, January 2, 2016
Conservatorship: Legalized Elder Abuse
Across the nation, elders are trapped in abusive guardianships and conservatorships. Victims are imprisoned and isolated from loved ones. In some cases, victims suffer horrific physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Chemical restraint silences their cries for help.
Source:
Conservatorship: Legalized Elder Abuse
Listen to the Cry of a Family Caregiver
I read your story on the difficulties of caring for a family member with dementia and think you really have the problem in focus: Although Alzheimer’s Disease research gets funding, the funding is NOT for the caregiver–save for tip sheets, training programs, support groups, and the advice to care for yourself first. There is no direct support or financial aid to help pay the bills.
For over a dozen years I cared “solo” for my mother who had Alzheimer’s–solo because I was the only family member living with her. She could pay for some hourly help, but even during those hours, I was doing errands and cleaning, and then was back with her all alone after the aide left. For many years, there were no aides or sitters. It was a story I heard often in caregiver support groups: Caregivers feeling abandoned by their families, and sometimes caring for one relative after another.
A member of an online caregiver support group told her deadbeat sister “When did OUR mother become MY mother?”
So why is it we get no outside help? I think it is because we are classified as “informal support.” That means “not paid.” Government dollars may go to research, nurses, aides, doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and senior day care centers. It goes to “formal support” and that means paid. But not to us. So we are in a Catch 22.
Full Article and Source:
Listen to the Cry of a Family Caregiver
Listen to the Cry of a Family Caregiver
Friday, January 1, 2016
Happy New Year 2016!
Balloons are a symbol of hope and celebration and our symbol
for the coming year. We look forward to
2016 being the year guardianship/conservatorship abuse victims and their
families celebrate new law in their state designed specifically to protect them from
wrongful isolation. Potentially thousands of people who are currently suffering, many simply falling through the cracks, now will see the flickering light at the end of the tunnel growing brighter.
We sadly said goodbye to far too many of our loved ones, guardianship abuse victims, who left us too soon this past year. And we also had to say goodbye to one of our own advocates who passed this fall. Many will not know the name Mary Anne Wyatt as she was a very private person; but she left footprints on this earth which can never be filled. Mary Anne was brilliant; she was a chemist by trade and there wasn’t a piece of art she loved better than the periodic table. She was an avid animal lover extraordinaire, and she received awards for her animal advocacy efforts. She also was instrumental in saving an island although I cannot remember the details of that remarkable feat. She was a victim of medical malpractice and she helped author a book on the subject. Her Mother was a victim of guardianship abuse, dying tragically and too young – a nightmare that haunted Mary Anne until her very last breath.
I am sure in this life, I would not have crossed paths with Mary Anne had she not lost her Mother to guardianship abuse. NASGA has been blessed to have Mary Anne as a member and staunch supporter.
We sadly said goodbye to far too many of our loved ones, guardianship abuse victims, who left us too soon this past year. And we also had to say goodbye to one of our own advocates who passed this fall. Many will not know the name Mary Anne Wyatt as she was a very private person; but she left footprints on this earth which can never be filled. Mary Anne was brilliant; she was a chemist by trade and there wasn’t a piece of art she loved better than the periodic table. She was an avid animal lover extraordinaire, and she received awards for her animal advocacy efforts. She also was instrumental in saving an island although I cannot remember the details of that remarkable feat. She was a victim of medical malpractice and she helped author a book on the subject. Her Mother was a victim of guardianship abuse, dying tragically and too young – a nightmare that haunted Mary Anne until her very last breath.
I am sure in this life, I would not have crossed paths with Mary Anne had she not lost her Mother to guardianship abuse. NASGA has been blessed to have Mary Anne as a member and staunch supporter.
When Mary Anne became
ill this year, she was so lucky to have a devoted caregiver who made sure Mary
Anne’s wishes were followed completely. Mary Anne had sensed her illness coming and so she trained her caregiver well. And when the time came, this person whom Mary Anne put all her trust in stepped up to the plate and made sure Mary Anne received the best care possible -- everything as Mary Anne wanted. We are forever indebted to you, Jessica, for all you did for Mary Anne and the battles you fought to make sure her wishes were followed.
We will miss Mary Anne and never forget her.
We will miss Mary Anne and never forget her.
Godspeed Mary Anne!
Steve Miller: Jared Shafer's Lawyer Elyse Tyrell Capitalizing Off Appointment To Nevada Supreme Court Guardianship Commission
Shafer's office manager/secretary/bookkeeper, Amy Viggiano Deittrick, is listed as his sign company's manager by the Secretary of State, and uses Shafer's guardianship business address on Pecos Road to rent or donate signs to candidates for Clark County Family Court, and District Court judgeships.
The effectiveness of the signs was so evident that soon after Shafer bought the sign company in 2003, the Clark County Family Court bench was filled with judges who used Shafer's signs to get elected, then as pay back made Shafer and his firm their choice when it came to awarding lucrative guardianships over the persons and assets of wealthy retirees, most deemed mentally incompetent by persons without credentials to make such a determination. Based on these court appointments, Shafer and his attorneys made obscene profits by gaining complete power of attorney over their court appointed ward's estates, and converting the assets for their own use (Tyrell charges wards $500 per hour).
The portable A-frame political signs are allegedly the reason local judges and the District Attorney do not go after Shafer for allegedly bilking the elderly and disabled, and blatantly violating NRS 159.073 (III) (IV), and other Nevada laws.
~SM
MORE INFORMATION:
Inside Vegas 12/21/2015
Inside Vegas 3/24/2014
Shafer Financial Records
Inside Vegas 12/21/2015
Inside Vegas 3/24/2014
Shafer Financial Records
Thursday, December 31, 2015
The Wisdom of the Aged
It was a day of frustration for Mr. Sorensen, whose 92nd birthday was the day after Christmas. He was in the kitchen of his Upper West Side apartment, holding pieces of a mop that he could not put back together. Gout had made his fingers almost useless, and his right arm hung limp from a torn rotator cuff. Just combing his hair that morning was a struggle.
“It makes me mad,” he said, speaking about what his life had come to. “I want to go.”
But flip the perspective, and it was another day in a long and rich life. Mr. Sorensen, who had made a career as a decorator, was living independently in his own home, amid the furniture and décor he had carefully chosen himself, and amid memories of the man who had shared his life there. He had music that could still take his breath away, and old movies that never failed to entertain. If his capacities had diminished, they had narrowed to activities that gave him satisfaction. Even in near blindness, he inhabited a mansion of visual memories.
“I’ve had a good life,” he said in the kitchen, retrieving a moment that was more vivid to him than the recent past. “I’ll never forget coming into the living room once and my dad had a canary on his hand. And my mother was looking at him, and I will never forget the smile on her face. It was like a young girl falling in love. I never saw such a smile on my mother. It was only an instant, because as soon as they saw me, it changed. But it was a beautiful memory that’s engraved in my mind.”
Do you know what you want to do when you get old?
Since the start of the year, the photographer Nicole Bengiveno and I have been visiting Mr. Sorensen and five other New Yorkers over the age of 85 — in hospital rooms and at birthday parties, on family vacations and at readings in nightclubs — and through it all, some version of Mr. Sorensen’s question has lingered: What is reasonable to ask of old age? Beyond the assaults of poverty or illness, to what extent can people shape the quality of life in their late years?
In New York City, the population age 85 and up has been growing at five times the rate for the city as a whole, doubling since 1980 to about 150,000. For this often invisible population, the first of its size, what does an older life really look like? And can it be better?
Throughout the year, the six talked unflinchingly about death and loss, but also about love and connection, about accomplishment and meaning. A paradox of old age is that older people have a greater sense of well-being than younger ones — not because they’re unreservedly blissful, but because they accept a mixture of happiness and sadness in their lives, and leverage this mixture when events come their way. They waste less time on anger, stress and worry. As Ping Wong, 90, put it: “When you’re young, the future is so far away, and you don’t know what will happen to you and the world. So when you’re young, you have more worries than the elderly. But I don’t worry now.”
Source:The Wisdom of the Aged
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Darcy Spears Special Report: Guardianship Under Fire
Darcy's most recent honors are two 2014 Emmys. One in the Military category for her series on how the VA is failing veterans when it comes to healthcare; and one in the Health/Science category entitled "Prescription for Pain" about how legitimate pain patients are delayed or denied at local pharmacies.
This brings Darcy's Emmy total to 14.
NASGA hopes Darcy's ongoing series on guardianship abuse brings her another Emmy for her fine reporting all year long on this insidious form of elder abuse which has brought so much pain and suffering to many innocent victims and their families. Darcy's fine reporting brought the depth of Nevada's problems to the national spotlight and raised awareness to our cause. We are deeply grateful for her giving victims and their families a voice and a platform to seek reform.
Thank you, Darcy!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Editorial: Agency Fighting Over Guardianship
Snipes, the president and CEO of Lutheran Services Florida, goes on to state that LSF strongly supports this bill. He claims that its guardianship program has served individuals who have no family members willing or able to manage affairs and make life decisions.
Sipes also states that it is preferential that family members serve as the guardians and that the agency will find the least restrictive measure to assist individuals with declining capacity to care for themselves. It trains family members to take on this role.
He finishes his column by claiming LSF will continue to work to make Florida’s guardianship system the most compassionate and person-centered system in the USA.
Really? If what he says is true, then why is LSF fighting Julie Ferguson, the more than willing, very capable, devout and loving daughter of Marise London, for guardianship?
~Carol Vengroff
Sarasota
Source:
See Also:
Facebook: Florida Guardianship Laws Talking Points
Facebook: Keep Marise Home With Family
Sam Snipes: Sen. Detert’s bill a good step to put individuals at ‘center’ of guardianships
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