I’m lucky. I have a tight-knit family. I realize for many it’s not like that. Kids move far away and trust that their parents will always be the same. But as people hit their 80’s or sometimes earlier, changes happen fast. Adult kids haven’t thought about it. It’s easy to see how that could happen because most people don’t understand much about the aging process. I mean, as a society we don’t want to face it, and everything in advertising and media is about staying young. It’s truly important to bring reality to the forefront without shaming or demeaning our children’s failings unless real abuse has occurred. Sometimes negligence can be stopped by education.
If your kid’s don’t pay attention, what’s to prevent Adult Protective Services and others from removing an elder from their home by court order? Let’s say an elder has fallen and lands in the emergency room. Everybody knows that elders become less able to care for themselves very well at some point. Officials can see this as the equivalent of leaving a child alone at home if they want to. (The court can and does set aside a power of attorney you have in place.) Where’s the line? Think of it this way: What would happen if somebody found a kid at home alone and they had an accident? That kid would be taken away and put into a foster home. We need to understand that elders over 65 need more and more attention as they age, and anyone not living with an elder needs to know the risks. 65 is basically the age you become an elder who is looked at differently–as more vulnerable.
Tell your kids about this. Chances are, an outcome like this wouldn’t happen, but it could. Adult Protective Services, a doctor, nurse, social worker –or a professional who trolls emergency rooms (believe it or not there are social workers or others who do this with connections on the “inside”, much like ambulance chasers) can legally initiate a petition to have you put under the control of a professional court-appointed guardian. If the court agrees that this is an emergency, that person then controls all decisions and your assets. This emergency petition basically bypasses due process.
Remember the documentary Edith & Eddie? Edith’s daughter will be our guest this evening to talk about how this all ended. Rebecca Wright will be talking about the documentary and how it exposed this corrupt system of guardianship. Produced by Laura Checkoway, the documentary revealed the devastating effects of the system of guardianship. Treated like property, no regard is given to the crushing pain and devastation that results from tearing people away from those they love and who love them.
When they took Edith away, they promised Eddie she would be back in two weeks. Separated from his precious Edith, Eddie collapsed when he realized she would not be coming home as promised. Please tune in to hear how this all ended, and what happened to Edith after Eddie’s death.
Directed, produced and edited by Laura Checkoway Produced by Thomas Lee Wright Co-producers Karina Rotenstein and P. Corwin Lamm Executive Producers: Steve James, Gordon Quinn, Betsy Steinberg, and Cher A production of Kartemquin Films and Heart is Red http://www.editheddie.com
“The false impression out there blaming families and relatives for 90% of elder abuse means that guardians can protect their own paychecks by maligning families in court, which they often do. It also means that the public is distracted away from looking at the larger entities abusing the elderly right under our noses.”
Most people believe that elder abuse is all about Granny surrounded by family predators who just want to grab her money and throw her to the wolves. You’ll hear plenty of rumblings claiming that families and people closest to elders are responsible for 90 % of all elder abuse.
The National Care Planning Council is one of many who quote this figure. The article is titled “ Perpetrators of Elder Abuse are Usually Family Members:” . Even AARP claims that “ You’d like to think that elder financial abuse is committed mostly by strangers. You’d be wrong. In reality, it’s more likely to come at the hands of family members and caregivers”
Why does everyone blame families?
The latest 2011 study done by MetLife shows that in terms of dollars stolen from elders, families are not the most likely to steal the most dollars: After examining three months of national news feeds, plus other data, researchers determined that businesses stole $205,243,400; Family members and friends stole $11,515,737, Strangers stole $7,612,513, and Medicaid/Medicare fraud caused the most damage–$306,105,093.)
NAPSA (National Adult Protective Services Association) is another organization that blames families for most of the elder abuse that takes place today. Their figure again is 90%. . Adult Protective Services investigates domestic settings. Since most of us don’t have lawyers or financial advisors living with us at home, my guess is that these culprits have been left out of the equation.
Marcia Southwick joins us to report on the convention held last week covering guardianship. Attendees came from various perspectives and countries.
The convention was sponsored by the BAR Association and the National Guardianship Association, among many other “stakeholders”. Both groups, whose activities are diametrically opposed to their stated purposes, had intended the convention to be a huge marketing campaign.
Attending with the intentions of highlighting the real state of guardianship for profit, was Marcia Southwick and Elaine Renoire from NASGA. Many other advocates and activists, many of whom have been directly impacted by predatory, court facilitated guardianships, were also in attendance.
Marcia Southwick will return to the show to give a summary of the state of New Mexico, adult legislations for 2013. Marcia also publishes, Boomers Against Elder Abuse on Facebook. This group is growing each day and heading towards 35,000 members.
In response to the exposure of the corruptive practices now being exposed in probate and family courts, many interested “stakeholders”……such as Guardianship associations, the BAR association, and many in the medical complex are leaning on state legislatures to expand their death grip on the elder community, and to make legal the theft of estates, the stripping of rights and the willful ignoring of standing state statutes meant to protect the victims from the predators.
Some of these new laws seem to heading backwards, but a few are good.
Issues are things like Due process, the role of guardian ad litem, Mediation, guardian background checks, guardianship financial authority, ward’s rights–etc. There are maybe 5 or so states to highlight, including New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nevada.
I’m lucky. I have a tight-knit family. I realize for many it’s not like that. Kids move far away and trust that their parents will always be the same. But as people hit their 80’s or sometimes earlier, changes happen fast. Adult kids haven’t thought about it. It’s easy to see how that could happen because most people don’t understand much about the aging process. I mean, as a society we don’t want to face it, and everything in advertising and media is about staying young. It’s truly important to bring reality to the forefront without shaming or demeaning our children’s failings unless real abuse has occurred. Sometimes negligence can be stopped by education. 
The PPJ Gazette 