Two men have been arrested
on suspicion of felony elder abuse in Calaveras County and a third man
suspected of elder abuse is believed to have left the county once he
learned law enforcement was investigating, a sheriff’s sergeant said
Wednesday in a summary of three separate cases.
The
arrested men were identified as Shawn Christopher Anderson, 43, of San
Andreas, who was arrested Sept. 8; and Donald David Nicholson, 53, of
Burson, who was arrested Sept. 7. Anderson and Nicholson were both
booked into Calaveras County jail on $50,000 bail each.
A
Sept. 8 investigation in Valley Springs is continuing. A week after all
three investigations, details of what happened were not disclosed.
Instead,
the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office distributed summary definitions
of elder abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and financial abuse.
Victims
of elder abuse often know their abusers, and many times the crimes go
unreported due to fear of retaliation, perceived shame in regards to the
abuse, and fear of loss of independence. Anyone with more information
about elder abuse in Calaveras County was urged to call the Sheriff’s
Office at (209) 754-6500 or (209) 754-6030.
Charlie Campbell accompanies his mom Dorothy Campbell to see her husband Gene Campbell through his room window at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
A national Coronavirus Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes has identified
more than two dozen major flaws in the response of government and the
nursing home industry to the covid-19 pandemic. However, the panel,
created by the Trump Administration, was relatively passive in its
recommendations for how to fix those shortcomings.
It feels a bit like reading the report of a physician who correctly
diagnoses a very complicated disease for a non-compliant patient, but
whose recommended treatment is not aggressive enough to cure the
condition.
The panel created a valuable roadmap for ways to correct some of
those shortcomings. Unfortunately, the political staff at the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that commissioned the report immediately attempted to recharacterize it as “a resounding vindication” of the Trump Administration’s own response to the pandemic.
If the Administration truly believes its actions to date have been a
success and refuses to acknowledge shortcomings, it is hard to imagine
it would be willing to adopt many of the recommendations. Yet, public
relations spin won’t change an environment where as many as 76,000 residents and staff have died from the pandemic.
Specific steps
In many respects, the report is remarkable. The commission put
together a 186-page report in just three months. It describes 27 broad
ways, and 100 specific steps, that government and nursing facilities
could take to reduce infections even as they recognize the need for residents to resume social contact with family members and each other.
The recommendations call for reform in several broad areas:
· Improved access to testing and personal protective equipment.
· Recognition of the need to balance infection control with quality of life of residents.
· More transparent communication with residents, their families, and the public.
· Better training and support for care workers.
· Recognition of the need to improve the physical infrastructure of many nursing homes.
· Better data-driven guidance for nursing home operators
· More funding.
The report does a good job identifying where government and the
nursing homes industry failed to respond to the pandemic. But in too
many cases, it relies on unenforceable federal guidance to achieve its
goals, rather than a more robust mix of safety mandates and additional
resources.
For instance, under current regulations, nursing homes are required
to have only a part-time staffer responsible for infection control.
Importantly, the report identifies this as one of the reasons why many
facilities still struggle to manage the pandemic. But it does not urge
CMS to mandate a full-time infection control officer for nursing
facilities. Instead, it calls on the agency to identify resources
facilities could use to hire such a staffer. The problem: These
resources don’t exist.
PPE and testing, still
The panel was made up of 25 members, including industry, consumer,
and workforce representatives, state officials, and academic experts.
Building consensus among such a diverse group in such a short time
probably was impossible. Only 13 members fully endorsed the report, 11
agreed but with reservations, and one— Eric Carlson of the advocacy
group Justice in Aging—refused to endorse it.
In the short-term, the report urges the CMS to “assume a greater
leadership role” in developing and executing a national strategy to
improve access to rapid and accurate testing and personal protective
equipment (PPE), enhance infection control staffing, and standardize
data collection.
Perhaps more than any issue, the absence of testing and PPE has been
responsible for the high number of cases and deaths in long-term care
facilities. The panel is hardly the first group to call on the
Administration to take the lead in addressing these gaps that have
persisted for more than six months. Will it have any more impact?
In the longer-run, the commission urges major reforms in training and
resources for staff as well as redesign of facilities to reduce the
spread of infectious diseases. However, the commission stopped short of
making more specific, but more controversial, recommendations such as
increasing pay for direct care workers or restructuring the entire
funding model for nursing homes.
Most disappointing
Most disappointing, though not surprising, was the Administration’s
response. It insisted the report validated steps it already has taken in
response to pandemic, something the commission did not do, or even
attempt to do. Commission member David Grabowksi, a professor of public
health at Harvard, said on Twitter, “Purpose of report was to provide
CMS with roadmap out of crisis, not evaluate federal response.” And, he
adds, “Lots of work to do.”
Yes, there is. At this point. It seems unlikely that he Trump
Administration will act on many of the commission’s recommendations.
Perhaps the next Administration will.
Life Care Center of Plainwell, Mich., which sent a resident to a psychiatric hospital this year.Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York Times
By Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Rachel Abrams
In a New York nursing home, a resident hurled a bingo chip. At a home in Georgia, a 46-year-old woman, paralyzed from the waist down, repeatedly complained that no one had changed her diaper. In a California facility, a patient threw tableware.
In all three cases, the nursing homes cited the incidents as a reason to send the residents to hospitals for psychiatric evaluations — and then to bar them from returning.
Across the United States, nursing homes are looking to get rid of unprofitable patients — primarily those who are poor and require extra care — and pouncing on minor outbursts to justify evicting them to emergency rooms or psychiatric hospitals. After the hospitals discharge the patients, often in a matter of hours, the nursing homes refuse them re-entry, according to court filings, government-funded watchdogs in 16 states, and more than 60 lawyers, nursing home employees and doctors.
The practice at times violates federal laws that restrict nursing homes from abruptly evicting patients.
“Even before the pandemic, there was tremendous pressure to get rid of Medicaid patients, especially those that need high levels of staffing,” said Mike Wasserman, a former chief executive of Rockport Healthcare Services, which manages California’s largest chain of for-profit nursing homes. “The pandemic has basically supercharged that.” He said homes often take advantage of fits of anger to oust patients, claiming they need psychiatric care.
About 70 percent of American nursing homes are for profit. The most lucrative patients are those on short-term rehabilitation stints paid for by private insurers or Medicare, the federal program that insures seniors and people with disabilities. Poor people on longer-term stays are covered by Medicaid, which reimburses nursing homes at a much lower rate than Medicare.
The financial incentive to have more Medicare or privately insured patients, and fewer on Medicaid, becomes more pronounced when the Medicaid patients have illnesses, like dementia, that require extra care from staff.
Nursing homes have faced acute staff shortages as the coronavirus has left employees sick or afraid to go in to work. Workers said they faced increased pressure from their employers during the pandemic to get rid of the most expensive, least lucrative patients.
Invoking psychiatric problems is a popular tool. Nursing homes routinely admit patients with dementia, Alzheimer’s or similar illnesses, and angry outbursts are common.
Evon Smith with the memorial book of her mother, Joan Rivers.Credit...Alexis Hunley for The New York Times
In March, the Rehabilitation Center of Santa Monica, Calif., sent Joan Rivers, who suffered from dementia and was on Medicaid, to the emergency room at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. The nursing home’s staff said Ms. Rivers, 87, had tossed aside her chair, scaring other residents, according to her daughter, Evon Smith, and a government-funded watchdog.
Within 24 hours, the hospital cleared her for discharge.
Ms.
Smith said that she had repeatedly asked the Rehabilitation Center to
take her mother back, but that it had refused. A social worker at
Verdugo Hills said she, too, had tried unsuccessfully to get the nursing
home to readmit Ms. Rivers.
Linda
Taetz, the chief compliance officer at Mariner Health Care, which
operates the Rehabilitation Center and 19 other nursing homes in
California, said the center hadn’t known that Ms. Rivers wanted to
return.
Ms. Rivers eventually was
admitted to the Colonial Care Center nursing home in Long Beach, Calif.
There, she contracted Covid-19. She died on July 20.
Federal
law requires nursing homes to follow strict guidelines when they intend
to evict someone: They must give 30 days’ notice and come up with a
plan to transfer the resident to a facility that can meet his or her
needs. If a resident goes to a hospital, the facility must hold the bed
for a week.
But nursing homes
frequently flout these rules, according to employees and state-funded
ombudsmen who help oversee the industry. The New York Times reported in July
that nursing homes were evicting an increasing number of low-income —
and therefore low-profitability — residents into homeless shelters and
run-down motels, apparently in violation of federal law.
There is no national data on nursing home evictions. The Times contacted ombudsmen in all 50 states.
Some said they had not seen nursing homes dumping patients in hospitals during the pandemic. But in 16 states, including California, Texas and New York, ombudsmen said the problem was continuing. Some said they believed it was getting worse.
“We have been seeing these kinds of illegal discharges all the time, because nursing homes seem to have figured out that they will rarely, if ever, be penalized,” said Alison Hirschel, senior legal counsel to the Michigan ombudsman program. “It’s devastating for residents and their families all the time, but especially horrible and dangerous during a pandemic.”
Ms. Rivers contracted Covid-19 while staying at the Colonial Care Center in Long Beach, Calif.Credit...Alexis Hunley for The New York Times
Medicaid patients who require lots of staff attention “have a target on their back,” she said.
The problem predates the pandemic.
Gloria Single was a resident of the Pioneer House nursing home in Sacramento. She had dementia and pulmonary disease and was on California’s version of Medicaid. Pioneer House was receiving about $400 a day for her care.
In 2017, Ms. Single got upset and threw utensils, according to a lawsuit against Pioneer House filed in state court by Ms. Single’s lawyer. The nursing home called 911, and Ms. Single was taken to a hospital for an involuntary psychiatric hold, in which patients are held until they are determined not to be a danger to themselves or others. The hospital determined later that day that there was nothing wrong with Ms. Single aside from her pre-existing dementia.
But Pioneer House would not let her return. The California Department of Health Care Services concluded that Pioneer House had violated the law and ordered it to let her go back. The home still refused. After about five months at the hospital, Ms. Single was moved to another nursing home. She died last year.
“You can get $1,000 extra a day by getting rid of the Gloria Singles of the world and replacing them with someone on Medicare,” said Matthew Borden, Ms. Single’s lawyer.
John Supple, a lawyer for the Retirement Housing Foundation, which operates Pioneer House, said that its medical director had deemed the home unsuitable for Ms. Single’s medical needs and that Pioneer House had never received the medical records it needed to readmit her. (Ms. Single’s lawyer disputes that. The lawsuit is ongoing.) Mr. Supple said Pioneer House had held Ms. Single’s bed for months and had not replaced her with a Medicare patient.
During the pandemic, nursing homes in Illinois and Michigan have repeatedly sent elderly and disabled Medicaid patients to NeuroBehavioral Hospital in Crown Point, Ind., said Kimberly Jackson, a discharge planner at the psychiatric hospital. In one case, a resident who yelled at a staff member was branded as being violent and having a psychotic break.
“The homes seem to be purposely taking symptoms of dementia as evidence of psychosis,” Ms. Jackson said. (Christy Gilbert, the chief operating officer of the hospital’s parent company, said instances when nursing homes dumped patients in her company’s hospitals were “very few and far between.”)
In June, Life Care Center of Plainwell, Mich., sent Nicki Safapour, a Medicaid patient who needs a wheelchair, to NeuroBehavioral Hospital. Because of a developmental disability, Mr. Safapour, 55, has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, according to his brother John, who is his legal guardian. He said Life Care had told him that Mr. Safapour assaulted an employee and another resident.
A state health inspector later determined that the discharge was illegal, according to a copy of the inspector’s report reviewed by The Times.
“It seemed like they were just trying to get rid of Nicki,” John Safapour said. “He took up a lot of staff time.”
A spokesman for Life Care, Davis Lundy, said that privacy rules prohibited him from discussing Mr. Safapour’s case, but that Life Care had a significant number of residents on Medicaid and that “we never discharge patients based on their payer source.”
Nicki Safapour, as his wheelchair was strapped into a van, was illegally evicted from a nursing home in June, a government agency found.Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York Times
The families of some evicted patients have had to take them into their homes, although they lack the training or equipment to care for them.
In June, Connie Rodina got a phone call from the Richmond Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Richmond, Kan. Her 63-year-old brother, Jon Fowler, who suffers from mental illness and dementia, had hit another resident. Ms. Rodina, her brother’s guardian, was told that she needed to pick him up immediately.
By the time Ms. Rodina arrived, Mr. Fowler was already being transported to an emergency room. The hospital was ready to discharge him a couple of days later, after treating him for a urinary tract infection. Ms. Rodina said Richmond Healthcare wouldn’t take him back.
“You can’t just put somebody out like that,” said Camille Russell, a regional ombudsman who filed a complaint against the facility with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. The complaint is pending, she said.
Ms. Rodina couldn’t find another nursing home that would admit Mr. Fowler, who needs near-constant care. After her brother had been in the hospital for weeks, she reluctantly moved him into her home.
“It’s basically taken my life away from me,” Ms. Rodina said. “It’s impossible for me to care for him.”
Representatives of Richmond Healthcare didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In some cases, nursing homes have ignored orders from regulators to take back patients they sent to emergency rooms or psychiatric hospitals.
Charles Borden, a stroke victim with dementia, had been staying at the skilled nursing facility at Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, Calif. Medicaid was covering his long-term stay. But in April, after Mr. Borden elbowed a nursing assistant and cursed at her, the nursing home sent him to the hospital’s emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation.
Within hours, the emergency room cleared Mr. Borden to return to the nursing home. But it wouldn’t take him back, according to court records. (While the nursing home and the main Tahoe Forest hospital share a campus and are owned by the same organization, the nursing home is financially independent from the hospital.)
Later that day, the nursing home dropped off all of Mr. Borden’s possessions at the E.R. and moved another resident into the room that Mr. Borden had shared with his wife, Beverly.
Two days later, on April 22, Mr. Borden’s son appealed the decision to California’s health care agency. It determined that the nursing home was legally required to take Mr. Borden back. The nursing home refused.
The state agency said it had no authority to force the nursing home to let Mr. Borden return, aside from fining it $50 for every day it refused.
Matt Mushet, a lawyer for the nursing home, said it “is committed to the optimal safety of all patients and team members.” He said that he couldn’t comment on Mr. Borden’s case but that “it’s important for the public to understand there is more than one side to this story.”
Mr. Borden has spent the past five months marooned in the hospital. His dementia makes it hard for him to understand what is going on, his son said, but Mr. Borden asks every day to see his wife.
In a surprise turn of events, a Los Angeles court judge granted a motion to seal the hearing and transcripts regarding singer Britney Spears’ conservatorship case on August 19. This means that the public and plenty of concerned fans are no longer privy to court proceedings as the protracted case for Britney’s freedom and improved quality of life reaches its inevitable conclusion.
Prior to this, the singer and her lawyers had registered a plea stating that they did not want her father, James aka Jamie Spears, to be the sole controller of her conservatorship and that the singer was exploring other options with respect to how her guardianship care would continue in the future. Britney had been under a court-ordered conservatorship controlled by her father since 2008, following a high-profile public meltdown and some erratic behavior that raised eyebrows regarding her mental health.
Honoree Britney Spears attends the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on April 12, 2018, in Beverly Hills, California (Getty Images)
Los Angeles judge Brenda Penny agreed to seal the hearing from media and the public and had the courtroom cleared out as the status hearing for Britney’s conservatorship was conducted behind closed doors. As per the terms of Britney’s conservatorship, her father James has been the primary custodian of her personal and professional life for the past 12 years.
However, this meant that the arrangement put the singer’s estate, financial assets and some personal assets under the control of her father and a lawyer, with Britney apparently no longer capable of running her own life. From her food to whom she dated, everything was subject to her father’s jurisdiction, along with concert tour schedules and medical supervision. However, Britney’s attorney later insisted, “She’s always involved in every career and business decision. Period.” After Britney’s co-conservator, attorney Andrew M Wallet, resigned in March 2019, that put her father in sole control of the 38-year-old singer’s affairs and estate.
Britney Spears attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016, in New York City (Getty Images)
Due to health concerns, James had stepped away from his conservatorship role in September 2019, and a licensed professional conservator, Jodi Montgomery, was appointed as the singer’s temporary caregiver. However, James was expected to resume his conservatorship duties this year and Britney made it clear that she was strongly opposed to giving him sole control over her life and financial affairs.
According to court documents, it is understood that the singer requested that James be removed from his position as her court-appointed conservator and that Montgomery be allowed to continue in her conservator role on a permanent basis, meaning that the latter would oversee the singer’s personal affairs henceforth. Britney also requested a “qualified corporate fiduciary” be appointed to oversee her financial affairs instead of her father.
Supporters of Britney Spears gather outside a courthouse in downtown for a #FreeBritney protest as a hearing regarding Spears’ conservatorship is in session on July 22, 2020, in Los Angeles, California (Getty Images)
Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Samuel D Ingham III, said, “We are now at a point where the conservatorship must be changed substantially in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes.” There had been plenty of fan support and public outcry after the disturbing details of the singer’s conservatorship were made public, with the #FreeBritney hashtag trending on social media on more than one occasion. A growing number of fans were concerned that the singer’s estate was being mismanaged and that she was being abused and trapped in circumstances beyond her control. They ultimately wanted James’s conservatorship investigated and ultimately revoked so that Britney could “finally be free and live her best life”.
However, James had rubbished the rumors that he was controlling his daughter’s life against her will, saying that those were merely conspiracy theories. “All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world doesn’t have a clue,” he stated. “It’s up to the court of California to decide what’s best for my daughter. It’s no one else’s business.”
However, it is now understood that Britney has hit a temporary roadblock in her bid to prevent her father from controlling her financial affairs and personal life. A document started circulating online that the court had made no immediate changes to the terms of her conservatorship and that the closed-door hearing has now extended the current arrangements until February 2021. According to sources, her conservatorship changes cannot be presented before a judge for approval until some additional legal documents are filed by Britney’s team.
American Ambulance Crew arrives at Three Rivers Healthcare
By Claire Bessette
Norwich — The state long-term care ombudsman’s office started getting
complaints from residents at the Three Rivers Healthcare nursing
home just as the state Department of Public Health stationed staff daily
at the home during a spike in COVID-19 cases that eventually infected
22 residents and six staff, leading to four residents’ deaths.
But
state Long-term Care Ombudsman Mairead Painter said Thursday that her
team of regional ombudsmen and support staff could not enter the
facility or any other nursing home in the state. The ombudsman’s office
representatives are considered to be “visitors,” no different than
family and friends and are prohibited from entering nursing homes under
federal COVID-19 protective guidelines from the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services.
Painter said she has been trying to get
the prohibition changed, to have her staff considered “essential health
care oversight” to allow them to enter nursing homes and meet with
residents, providing additional eyes on the levels of care and potential
problems at homes. Prior to COVID-19, ombudsmen would visit residents,
ask questions and leave their cards for people to contact them.
“There
is unquestionably less oversight right now due to people not being in
the building,” Painter said Thursday, one day after the state ordered the nursing home closed and
all residents relocated. “That’s normally where we get a lot of
complaints. Family might see something that may be wrong, maybe not even
involving their own relative, and pass it along to us.”
Painter
said she has been working with many family members of the 53 residents
at Three Rivers who will be relocated. Several have contacted her office
since Wednesday’s announcement. Several said they already were trying
to move to other facilities, because they felt they were not getting
proper care at Three Rivers.
Painter said the closure of the
nursing home does not mean the investigation is over and the state is
“moving on.” Staff attorneys at the ombudsman’s office are tied to the
state Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating. The state’s
attorney’s office is involved to investigation possible criminal
violations, and DPH and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services also will investigate.
“These are people with licenses in
our state and with the federal government to provide this care, and
that’s why it’s important for them to be held accountable,” Painter
said.
Department of Public Health inspectors and staff have been
at the Three Rivers home since mid-August, when the COVID-19 outbreak
became known.
“It was all alarming to me,” Painter said of the
extensive and detailed inspection reports and notices of violations
written by DPH investigators. “What raises questions to me is, how do we
make sure management is held accountable for these things? Many of
these are not (COVID-19) related. These are normal nursing home
operations, these are misses.”
DPH acting Commissioner Deidre
Gifford issued the unusual emergency order Wednesday that the facility
be vacated of all residents, with the 17 residents infected with
COVID-19 and the seven under observation for possible infection going to
the state-approved COVID-19 facility, Riverside Health and
Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford. The remaining 29 residents are
receiving top priority at nursing homes of their choice in the greater
Norwich area.
DPH has released two extensive inspection reports
based on investigations of residents’ care records and interviews with
staff and residents. The first report, released Aug. 31, chronicled how a
registered nurse had vacationed out of state with family and returned
to work feeling sick, frequently interacting with staff and residents
without a mask while family members were sick at home awaiting COVID-19
tests.
The second, 71-page report and a 35-page violation notice
were released Monday detailing investigations of daily care records,
administering of medicines and staffing levels. By Sept. 10, state
officials determined that a temporary manager was needed to oversee a
corrective plan ordered to be done by Sept. 30. The report found lack of
documentation on daily patient care records, times when an entire wing
was left without staffing and patients not provided proper hydration.
The report also said 29% of staff — 16 of the 55 employees — had not received required weekly COVID-19 tests.
After
30 hours at the facility, state-appointed temporary manager Katharine
Sacks reported that the problems were beyond correcting and recommended
the home be closed — the first time such an order has been given by the
state in the collective memory of state officials with 20 to 30 years of
service who attended Wednesday’s news conference.
The relocations will be done slowly and carefully, Sacks said, about 10 per day starting with the COVID-19 residents.
Families concerned
Painter
said Thursday residents and family members she has been in contact with
are concerned about the level of care they will receive at Three Rivers
while waiting to be relocated. Painter said she is confident proper
care will be provided, with Sacks’ 30 years of experience dealing with
troubled nursing homes and DPH's daily presence at the home.
Painter’s
office held an online meeting with family members Wednesday morning
prior to the state’s closure announcement and will have another live
meeting with families Friday to answer “high level” questions and
arrange for individual meetings to answer specific concerns one-on-one.
William
Alvarez, husband of Three Rivers resident Noelle Henderson Alvarez,
said he is seeking assistance from the state to allow his wife to be
discharged to their home, a handicapped-accessible apartment in
Wequonnoc Village in Taftville. Alvarez said his wife, 55, suffered a
stroke in 2018 and has been at Three Rivers since then.
He said he saw a report of the state’s order to close the nursing home on TV on Wednesday night.
“I
believe they should go in there and clean up house, the entire facility
and hire new staff,” he said Thursday, “and I would prefer to have the
state purchase the property, or have it condemned. It’s not the
patients’ fault, it’s the staff or the owners for not hiring the proper
people.”
Alvarez and his wife’s sister, Meliss Swanson, who is
conservator for Noelle, have been trying to get Noelle discharged but
Three Rivers had refused the request. The family believes William
Alvarez and home nursing visits could provide the proper care, and
Noelle, a retired nurse on disability, could become more independent and
happier.
“I would love my wife to be home again,” William Alvarez
said. “She’s only a young lady of 55, and I want to see her smile
again. No one gives her a hug and loves her there.”
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — The
state of New Mexico has created a new partnership between the state
Attorney General, State Auditor and Ombudsman to protect seniors and
specialized care individuals at nursing homes and long-term care
facilities from poor or abusive treatment.
The Ombudsman will
also partner with the Department of Health and Adult Protective Services
to review data and elevate complaints to executive departments that
have the power to investigate, level civil penalties and prosecute if
needed.
The creation of this partnership follows a request by
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for the Ombudsman to review complaints
occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic and to recommend a course of
action to increase support for residents and their families.
“This
new process will take a hard look at the information and complaints we
are seeing come from families, residents, and surveyors, with the goal
of expanding accountability and increasing the standard of care across
New Mexico,” said Aging and Long Term Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez.
“We must work together and leverage the tools of our offices to
protect vulnerable New Mexicans from anyone who would defraud or abuse
them,” said Hector Balderas, New Mexico Attorney General. “Through this
collaboration, we will continue to aggressively prosecute and hold
individuals accountable for horrific abuse."
The partnership is
designed to ensure that all complaints are expediently handled by
setting up a direct referral process coordinated by the Ombudsman,
working closely with not just the Attorney General and Auditor but local
district attorneys, the Department of Health and the Office of the
Superintendent of Insurance as needed.
“At a time when we need
strong oversight for our seniors and care dependent New Mexicans, this
referral process will enable residents and their families to restore
their dignity and seek the justice they deserve,” said Zack Quintero,
New Mexico State Ombudsman. The State Ombudsman Program has recently
started a new statewide initiative of wellness, dignity, and access to
justice during COVID-19; this announcement is part of that initiative.
“These
efforts help champion the Office of the State Auditor’s fight against
fraud and abuse, increasing avenues for identifying risks related to
financial affairs and guardianship and conservatorship matters within
our purview,” said Brian Colón, New Mexico State Auditor. “New Mexicans
deserve financial transparency and protection and we look forward to
working with the Attorney General and Ombudsman to better serve one of
our most vulnerable populations.”
The New Mexico Long-Term Care
Ombudsman Program provides advocacy and resident-centered protection of
the rights of New Mexicans living in long-term care facilities. To that
end, the Ombudsman Program provides individual and systemic advocacy on
behalf of long-term care residents.
San Andreas, CA – Two men have been arrested for felony elder abuse with a third suspect on the run in Calaveras County.
Sheriff’s officials say the reports came in one after the other in
just two days. The first suspect 53-year-old Donald David Nicholson of
Burson was taken into custody on Monday, September 7th. Nicholson is
accused of both physical and mental abuse after slapping a victim
several times in the chest.
Two more elder abuse incidents came in the next day, Tuesday, Sept.
8th. Arrested was 43-year-old Shawn Christopher Anderson from San
Andreas who investigators say also subjected the victim to mental and
physical abuse. The latter involved repeatedly pushed the victim down to
the ground.
Nicholson and Anderson both remain in the Calaveras County jail on $50,000.00 bail each.
That same day, another investigation was launched in Valley Springs,
but that suspect is now being sought. Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Greg
Stark shares, “It is believed the suspect left the county once he
learned law enforcement was investigating the abuse.” This case also
includes mental abuse and another charge of financial abuse. Sgt. Stark
says since it is an ongoing investigation no further details, including
the suspect’s identity or his description, are being released.
The sheriff’s office urges anyone to immediately call 9-1-1 if the
abuse is a life-threatening danger. Otherwise, report suspected elder
abuse by calling the department at 209-754-6500 or the anonymous tip
line at 209-754-6030. Sheriff’s officials provide these definitions and
signs of elder abuse below:
Elder abuse is an intentional act or failure to act, by a caregiver
or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust
that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult. Elder abuse can
consist of emotional, physical, or financial abuse. Often times, the
victim is related or knows the suspect, and many times the crimes go
unreported due to fear of retaliation, perceived shame in regards to the
abuse, and fear of loss of independence.
Physical Abuse:
Physical abuse involves a form of force to cause unnecessary injury
or pain on a person. This can be anything from severe beatings to rope
or chain restraining, for example. Other forms of physical abuse include
but are not limited to pushing, pinching, shoving, burning, biting,
drowning, and kicking. Physical abuse can be unintentional — someone may
intend to help the elder, but the behavior can still be considered
abusive if the action(s) taken embody any of the above. Last but not
least, the inappropriate use of medications and physical restraints can
also be regarded as physical abuse.
Signs of Physical Abuse:
Bruise marks anywhere on the body
Rope marks on wrists and/or ankles
Refusal to seek medical help for injuries
Nonchalant attitude towards any of these injuries when confronted about them
Verbal/Mental Abuse:
In addition to physical abuse, elder abuse can take a verbal form,
which can be mentally disturbing to the victimized individual. Some
forms of verbal abuse include name-calling or giving the silent
treatment to either intimidate or cause distress for someone. It can
also take the form of cursing, yelling, or making insulting remarks.
When a caregiver, family member, or even a stranger behaves in any of
the above ways to cause mental anguish to an elder, it can be considered
abusive. If an elderly person feels that they are being isolated or
treated like a child through threats or manipulative behavior, they can
also feel emotionally abused.
Signs of Verbal Abuse:
Isolated personality
Odd changes in behavior
Unresponsive and doesn’t like to communicate with others
Unreasonably suspicious or fearful of everyday things
Lack of interest for social interaction
Financial Abuse:
If an elderly person does not take full responsibility and aware of
their financial situation, they are more susceptible to exploitation.
This can range from the inappropriate use of the older person’s funds to
the act of denying the individual from accessing his or her funds or
home. Fraud, forgery, forced property transfers, or the act of
purchasing expensive items with the elder’s money without his or her
knowledge are also examples of financial abuse. Financial abuse can also
take place on the telephone or face-to-face in the form of
solicitation. For example, salespeople or so-called friends can
perpetrate scams for home repair services, health-related services, and
other things that an elderly may need and be inclined to buy into.
Signs of Financial Abuse:
Unusual ATM activity
Large withdrawals from bank accounts
Signatures on checks do not match up with the signature of the elder
The elder’s life circumstances do not match up with his or her financial assets
(Kaiser Health News)Where
do we want to live in the years ahead? Older adults are asking this
question anew in light of the ongoing toll of the coronavirus pandemic —
disrupted lives, social isolation, mounting deaths. Many are changing
their minds.
Some
people who planned to move to senior housing are now choosing to live
independently rather than communally. Others wonder whether transferring
to a setting where they can get more assistance might be the right
call.
These decisions,
hard enough during ordinary times, are now fraught with uncertainty as
the economy falters and Covid-19 deaths climb, including tens of
thousands in nursing homes and assisted living centers.
Teresa Ignacio Gonzalvo and her husband, Jaime, both 68, chose to build a
house rather than move into a continuing care retirement community when
they relocate from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Indianapolis later this
year to be closer to their daughters.
Having heard about lockdowns around the
country because of the coronavirus, Gonzalvo said, "We've realized we're
not ready to lose our independence."
Alissa
Ballot, 64, is planning to leave her 750-square-foot apartment in
downtown Chicago and put down roots in a multigenerational cohousing
community where neighbors typically share dining and recreation areas
and often help one another.
"What I've learned during this pandemic is that personal relationships matter most to me, not place," she said.
Kim
Beckman, 64, and her husband, Mike, were ready to give up being
homeowners in Victoria, Texas, and join a 55-plus community or rent in
an independent living apartment building in northern Texas before
Covid-19 hit.
Now, they're
considering buying an even bigger home because "if you're going to be in
the house all the time, you might as well be comfortable," Beckman
said.
"Everyone I know is talking about this,"
said Wendl Kornfeld, 71, who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
She has temporarily tabled the prospect of moving into a continuing
care retirement community being built in the Bronx.
"My husband and I are going to play it by ear; we want to see how things play out" with the pandemic, she said.
In
Kornfeld's circles, people are more committed than ever to staying in
their homes or apartments as long as possible — at least at the moment.
Their fear: If they move to a senior living community, they might be
more likely to encounter a Covid-19 outbreak.
"All
of us have heard about the huge number of deaths in senior facilities,"
Kornfeld said. But people who stay in their own homes may have trouble
finding affordable help there when needed, she acknowledged.
Avoiding nursing homes amid the pandemic
More
than 70,000 residents and staff members in nursing homes and assisted
living facilities had died of Covid-19 by mid-August, according to the
latest count from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
This
is an undercount because less than half of states are reporting data
for Covid-19 in assisted living. Nor is data reported for people living
independently in senior housing. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially
independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.)
Nervousness about senior living has
spread as a result, and in July, the National Investment Center for
Seniors Housing & Care reported the lowest occupancy rates since the
research organization started tracking data 14 years ago.
Occupancy
dropped more in assisted living (a 3.2% decline from April through
June, compared with January through March) than in independent living (a
2.4% decline). The organization doesn't compile data on nursing homes.
In
a separate NIC survey of senior housing executives in August, 74% said
families had voiced concerns about moving in as Covid cases spiked in
many parts of the country.
Overcoming possible isolation
The
potential for social isolation is especially worrisome, as facilities
retain restrictions on family visits and on group dining and activities.
(While states have started to allow visits outside at nursing homes and
assisted living centers, most facilities don't yet allow visits inside —
a situation that will increase frustration when the weather turns
cold.)
Beth Burnham Mace, NIC's
chief economist and director of outreach, emphasized that operators have
responded aggressively by instituting new safety and sanitation
protocols, moving programming online, helping residents procure
groceries and other essential supplies, and communicating regularly
about Covid-19, both on-site and in the community at large, much more
regularly.
Mary Kazlusky, 76, resides in
independent living at Heron's Key, a continuing care retirement
community in Gig Harbor, Washington, which is doing all this and more
with a sister facility, Emerald Heights in Redmond, Washington.
"We
all feel safe here," she said. "Even though we're strongly advised not
to go into each other's apartments, at least we can see each other in
the hall and down in the lobby and down on the decks outside. As far as
isolation, you're isolating here with over 200 people: There's somebody
always around."
One staff member at
Heron's Key tested positive for Covid-19 in August but has recovered.
Twenty residents and staff members tested positive at Emerald Heights.
Two residents and one staff member died.
Colin
Milner, chief executive officer of the International Council on Active
Aging, stresses that some communities are doing a better job than
others. His organization recently published a report on the future of
senior living in light of the pandemic.
It
calls on operators to institute a host of changes, including
establishing safe visiting areas for families both inside and outside;
providing high-speed internet services throughout communities; and
ensuring adequate supplies of masks and other forms of personal
protective equipment for residents and staff, among other
recommendations.
Some families now
wish they'd arranged for older relatives to receive care in a more
structured environment before the pandemic started. They're finding that
older relatives living independently, especially those who are frail or
have mild cognitive impairments, are having difficulty managing on
their own.
"I'm hearing from a lot of people —
mostly older daughters — that we waited too long to move Mom or Dad, we
had our head in the sand, can you help us find a place for them," said
Allie Mazza, who owns Brandywine Concierge Senior Services in Kennett
Square, Pennsylvania.
While many
operators instituted move-in moratoriums early in the pandemic, most now
allow new residents as long as they test negative for Covid-19.
Quarantines of up to two weeks are also required before people can
circulate in the community.
Many
older adults, however, simply don't have the financial means to make a
move. More than half of middle-income seniors — nearly 8 million older
adults — can't afford independent living or assisted living communities,
according to a 2019 study.
And
more than 7 million seniors are poor, according to the federal
Supplemental Poverty Measure, which includes out-of-pocket medical
expenses and other drains on cash reserves.
Questions to ask
For those able to consider senior housing, experts suggest you ask several questions:
•
How is the facility communicating with residents and families? Has it
had a Covid outbreak? Is it disclosing Covid cases and deaths? Is it
sharing the latest guidance from federal, state and local public health
authorities?
• What protocols have
been instituted to ensure safety? "I'd want to know: Do they have a plan
in place for disasters — not just the pandemic but also floods, fires,
hurricanes, blizzards?" Milner said. "And beyond a plan, do they have
supplies in place?"
• How does the
community engage residents? Is online programming — exercise classes,
lectures, interest group meetings — available? Are one-on-one
interactions with staffers possible? Are staffers arranging online
interactions via FaceTime or Zoom with family? Are family visits
allowed?
"Social
engagement and stimulation are more important than ever," said David
Schless, president of the American Seniors Housing Association.
•
What's the company's financial status and occupancy rate? "Properties
with occupancy rates of 90% or higher are going to be able to withstand
the pressures of Covid-19 significantly more than properties with
occupancy below 80%, in my opinion," said Mace of the National
Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. Higher occupancy means
more revenues, which allows institutions to better afford extra
expenses associated with the pandemic.
"Transparency is very important," Schless said.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
MACOMB
COUNTY, MI – A guardianship company will dissolve after its owner
illegally charged an elderly couple $400,000 for services from companies
she and her husband own.
The
“self-dealing” case that shows a court-appointed guardian was
financially benefiting by hiring her own companies to provide services
and charging a “shocking amount of money” was settled out of court by
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Financial aspects of the
settlement have not been released but the injunctive aspects are
detailed in a news release from the AG’s office.
Guardianship
company Caring Hearts Michigan Inc. will immediately cease operations and legally dissolve by the end of the
year, the release said. In addition, [the owner and] her employees
are permanently barred from operating any other guardianship or
conservatorship entity.
Of
particular concern in this case was a web of connections between [the] guardianship company and two other companies [the owner] hired to provide
services to elderly people she had guardianship over.
“Our
involvement in this case revealed what we feared: fiduciaries with a
clear financial conflict of interest who billed a shocking amount of
money in a relatively short period of time,” Nessel said.
Caring
Hearts was appointed by Macomb County Probate Judge Kathryn George
as both guardian and conservator for Robert Lee Mitchell and
Barbara Delbridge, despite a petition submitted by the daughter and
stepdaughter of the couple.
In
a span of six months, Caring Hearts Michigan; Executive Care, a 24-hour
in-home care company, also owned by [the owner of Caring Hearts Michigan]; and [a] law firm billed the
elderly couple $400,000. Almost 72 percent of the bills were for
Executive Care.
The
Estates and Protected Individuals Code prohibits this kind of financial
self-dealing by the guardian, Nessel said. In addition, courts are not
permitted to appoint a guardian agency that financially benefits from
directly providing housing, medical, mental health or social services to
the legally incapacitated individual, she said.
Nessel
places responsibility on the courts to ensure that the state’s
guardianship system is protecting the vulnerable and that
court-appointed guardians and conservators fulfill their fiduciary
responsibilities to those in their custody.
“To
help, my team continues to look for similar instances of self-dealing
and we will take swift action when it is discovered,” Nessel said.
