Friday January 14, 2022 at 7:00 pm CST!

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Tonight on TS Radio we are asking that anyone who may have information on the whereabouts of David Italiano, resident of Pennsylvania, who has been seized in an unnecessary guardianship and disappeared in the system, please contact us. David has been isolated in an undisclosed location for unknown reasons. Send info to tsrad1@outlook.com

From Karen Koch...https://www.cilncp.org/.

• PA, like many states, is quick to rush to guardianship vs. less restrictive ways to support a person. We have worked with many groups to find assistance to help David Italiano.
• We reached out to the local Ombudsman for help but were told that there was a guardian and there was little that the Ombudsman could do. They were helpful when David requested his medical records. David wanted to know what evidence would be submitted to the court to support the need for a guardian. Sadly, this took close to 9 weeks and David received his records after the court hearing.
• We escalated our conversation to Margaret Barajas, the PA State Long Term Care Ombudsman.
• We had multiple meetings with her that went nowhere. We met with her supervisor, PA Sec. of Aging, Mr. Robert Torres, to request his office facilitate a meeting with the guardian.
• I have attached communication from the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living and the reply from the PA Dept of Aging regarding the request to meet.
• We filed complaints with the PA Office of Civil Rights but with no signed release from David, they would not act.
• We had the same response from the Federal Office of Civil Rights, they wanted a release to follow up on the allegation of an abusive/unnecessary guardian.
• We had a meeting with staff from ACL to discuss the conflict of interest with the Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) serving in the role of guardian. As we discussed today the AAA is his guardian, provider, Rep Payee in addition to serving as the Ombudsman and the Adult Protective Services agency for Huntingdon County.
• At one point the AAA/Guardian told us that they would not facilitate a care plan meeting for David as it was a duplication of services to have both agencies working to help David. We explained that there is no duplication of services as we are federally funded and mandated to provide Transition Services.
• We have reached out to PA State Rep Jeff Wheeland for help. Like many of the others, he would not get involved due to their being a guardian.
• We contacted Senator Robert Casey’s office to request help. Both Senator Casey and his policy person for the Elderly and Disabled population, Michael Gamel-McCormick agree that the guardianship system is badly broken, there was nothing that they could offer in the way of help. Senator Casey is drafting legislation to be introduced to the 118^th congress to address systemic changes that are needed to protect people from unnecessary guardianship.
• We spoke with the Community Legal Aid office in Philadelphia, but they would not commit to helping David.
• We filed a complaint with the PA Dept of Health that went nowhere. We were in touch with an advocate, Dr. Janet Parker. Dr. Parker is with an organization called Medical Whistle Blowers. She was very interested in helping us but without a signed release of information from David, she was not able to bring this to the attention of the United Nations.
• We also reached out to some local press. No one would get involved due to the guardian.
• We facilitated a meeting with David and Joe Shapiro from NPR. Again, the guardian was the reason that Mr. Shapiro would not get involved.

  I think that sums up our efforts to find David.

• There are two things that really strike me about this situation. First is that prior to the AAA becoming his guardian, both the facility and the initial guardian, Jim Malee, were supportive of David not needing this level of care.
• The second is that the initial guardianship was put in place “to protect him from his wife.” His wife is now deceased, she is clearly no longer a threat to David.