Newsfeed – Tuesday, September 10, 2013
The newsfeed includes articles and stories related to abuse of elders and adults with disabilities. Articles related to elders appear in the top half of the newsfeed. Articles related to abuse of adults with disabilities appear towards the bottom. To subscribe to the NCEA listserv, please send an email with your name, occupation, your organization/agency name, city and state, and a statement about your professional interest or expertise in elder abuse to NCEA@UCI.edu. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
Did you know? A calendar of upcoming elder abuse and neglect events and funding opportunities can be found at the bottom of the newsfeed.
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ELDER ABUSE NEWSFEED
CALIFORNIA (Fremont), Contra Costa Times, September 6, 2013
Newark man arrested, charged with committing sex crimes on patient at Fremont facility
A Newark man has been arrested and charged with 17 felony counts of committing a sex crime on a dependent adult while being a caretaker, according to authorities. The caregiver is accused of committing the crime each week between April 1 and Aug. 23, court documents said.
CALIFORNIA (Lodi), Lodi News, September 7, 2013
Lodi police: Suspect defrauded elderly woman
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_e8d52c44-edb2-58a7-8622-ede0e3dff9f0.html
Lodi police arrested a 48-year-old woman on Thursday on suspicion of stealing more than $20,000 over the course of at least a year from an elderly woman, authorities said. According to Police Sgt. Eric Versteeg, Serpico befriended a 90-year-old woman and offered her rides to the grocery store, doctor appointments and other locations using multiple tactics to withdraw funds from the victim's account.
CALIFORNIA (Monterey), the Californian, September 9, 2013
Monterey County public guardian wins award for elder abuse victim
A Monterey County judge has ruled that a woman who took cash and property from an elderly Seaside woman committed financial elder abuse and must pay back more than half a million dollars to the victim, who is now under the conservatorship of the Monterey County Public Guardian.
CALIFORNIA (San Rafael), Marin IJ Crime Beat, September 9, 2013
South Bay man accused of embezzling from relative in San Rafael
http://www.marinij.com/crimebeat/ci_24053813/south-bay-man-accused-embezzling-from-relative-san
A South Bay real estate broker was arraigned Monday on charges he embezzled more than $10,000 from a 78-year-old relative in San Rafael. The 44-year-old Gilroy man is charged with nine felony counts including perjury, forgery, burglary, identity theft and identity theft from an elder or dependent adult.
CALIFORNIA (San Diego), Center for Health Reporting, September 9, 2013 (Opinion)
Deadly neglect at some San Diego County assisted living facilities
Out of 18 deaths that the state did investigate and judge preventable in San Diego County since 2008, 12 were subject to a fine. It was $150, the maximum allowed by law. At least 196 deaths considered to be accidental in assisted living homes since 2009 have been reviewed by San Diego County’s medical examiner, according to reporters’ analysis. The examiner is not required to notify the state Department of Social Services of its findings, and the department’s inspectors do not monitor its reports, meaning that suspicious deaths may fall through the cracks, with a resident’s survivors not even knowing the facts.
CALIFORNIA, KQED, September 9, 2013
Who’s protecting the abused elderly?
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/09/09/whos-protecting-the-abused-elderly/
In a case of suspected elder abuse to a 95-year-old woman that led to death in 2006, the family still struggles with getting the proper agencies to investigate this case. The article states that from 2004 to 2008, public health regulators piled up more than 900 cases in Southern California; cases that involved severe injuries and suspicious deaths.
CALIFORNIA, Center for Investigative Reporting, September 9, 2013 (Opinion)
Quick dismissal of caregiver abuse cases puts CA patients at risk
http://cironline.org/reports/quick-dismissal-caregiver-abuse-cases-puts-calif-patients-risk-5158
Author states that California regulators routinely conduct cursory and indifferent investigations into suspected violence and misconduct committed by hundreds of nursing assistants and in-home health aides – putting the elderly, sick and disabled at risk over the past decade. In 2009, the state Department of Public Health quietly ordered its investigators to dismiss nearly 1,000 pending cases of abuse and theft after officials determined their swelling backlog had become a crisis.
FLORIDA (Maitland), Orlando Sentinel, September 6, 2013
Tree trimmer scammed elderly woman out of $20K, Maitland police say
A tree trimmer scammed an 83-year-old Maitland woman out of nearly $20,000 by performing work that she did not need, police said. The accused 41-year-old-man was being held Friday in the Orange County Jail.
GEORGIA (Conyers), Cov News, September 7, 2013
Woman faces elder neglect charge
http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/44758/
A Conyers woman, Laverne Chavez, 50, was charged with elder neglect felony after the victim’s other relatives found their 97-year-old step-grandmother had been left alone about 16 hours or more without food and in a home with no air conditioning.
GEORGIA (Marietta), Marietta Patch, September 9, 2013
Woman wanted for operating unlicensed care facility in Marietta
Marietta Police, along with Adult Protective Services and Cobb County Police, served a search warrant on the residence on Laurel Springs Lane in Marietta and found the facility to be unlicensed and in poor condition.
GEORGIA (Marietta), AJC, September 9, 2013
Police: owner of illegal care home wanted
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/police-owner-of-illegal-care-home-wanted/nZrXX/
Police are looking for a Marietta woman accused of illegally running an adult care home. Pictures police obtained from the home in the 900 block of Laurel Springs Lane showed, among other things, rotted food in the refrigerator and bed sheets used in the place of ceilings.
GEORGIA (Toccoa), 11 Alive, September 7, 2013
Sweetheart swindle-case of elder abuse
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/305108/40/Sweetheart-Swindle---Case-of-Elder-Abuse
Attorneys in a financial elder abuse case calculated that a woman pretending to be in love with the elderly man took “about $53,000 over a period of nearly 3 years”. On August 15, 2013, nearly two years after the 82-year-old man had been laid to rest, the jury found in favor of the plaintiff on all counts. It was a 70 thousand dollar verdict - including 10 thousand dollars in punitive damages.
IOWA (Ainsworth), DesMoines Register, September 7, 2013
Iowa court denies appeal of 2011 charges
An Ainsworth man’s 2011 convictions on involuntary manslaughter, theft and dependent adult abuse charges will stand following a court opinion released this week. Rodney Lee Bean, 54, is serving a 17-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty for his role in the 2008 death of Joye Gentzler, 79. Gentzler, who weighed just 74 pounds at the time of her death, died from malnutrition and dehydration.
MARYLAND (Montgomery County), the Washington Post, September 9, 2013
Woman sentenced in elderly father’s death
Officers found an 83-year-old man dead — curled on his side atop a plastic-covered mattress emaciated with his naked body covered with more than a dozen open sores. Five of the wounds were so deep that bones were exposed. At the hearing, the defendant said that her father, who had suffered three strokes, told her he was ready to die. He refused food, she said, and she heeded his wish.
NORTH DAKOTA (Grand Forks County), Grand Forks Herald, September 10, 2013
Trial opens in second lawsuit against Grand Forks County alleging misuse of elder’s assets
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/272750/
A second jury trial seeking damages from Grand Forks County over alleged misdeeds by the county’s former public administrator is set to begin today, 11 days after a similar lawsuit ended with no financial damages assigned to the county. The attorney argues that the defendant was a county employee, making the county liable for her failure to do her duty as public administrator, including accounting for the victim’s estate.
OKLAHOMA, Take Part, September 9, 2013 (Opinion)
Legislators put nursing home profits ahead of elder abuse problems
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/09/09/nursing-home-nightmare-oklahoma
Despite a series of high-profile nursing home abuse cases in Oklahoma, the legislature there still seems more interested in helping nursing homes avoid elder-abuse lawsuits than it is in saving the state’s elderly from disturbing cruelty.
OREGON (Bend), the Bulletin, September 9, 2013
Drug theft affects care
Cole Elf, 28, of Bend, admitted he stole 40 prescription painkillers from a handful of residents at the Touchmark at Mt. Bachelor Village retirement community, according to a police report. Elf was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of oxycodone and a schedule II controlled substance, both of which are felonies, as well as unlawful possession of hydrocodone and third-degree theft, which are misdemeanors.
PENNSYLVANIA (Harrisburg), The Patriot-News, September 10, 2013
Car salesman, Millersburg woman allegedly caught stealing from the elderly in Dauphin County
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/car_salesman_millersburg_woman.html
A 53-year-old a car salesman was arrested after he allegedly falsified bank loan applications for two county residents through the Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union and profited from the loans, authorities said. Also, a 50-year-old Millersburg woman allegedly used her power-of-attorney agreement to steal from an elderly relative’s estate. Police said she stole $10,506 from an 86-year-old woman and used the money for “nonessential items for her own personal use.”
TENNESSEE (Johnson City), Johnson City Press, September 10, 2013
3 ex-CNAs won’t serve jail time in elderly patient-abuse case at Johnson City nursing home
Three former CNAs who admitted spraying two Appalachian Christian Village nursing home patients with water to agitate them were denied judicial diversion, but won’t serve any jail time. A fourth woman was granted diversion because she didn’t participate in the abuse. She was charged because even though she didn’t participate, she saw the abuse on one occasion and didn’t report it.
TEXAS (Navasota), KBTX, September 6, 2013
Navasota nurse arrested for elderly abuse
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Navasota-Nurse-Arrested-for-Elderly-Abuse--222731071.html
A Navasota nurse has been arrested after police say she was caught on camera slapping a resident at a Bryan nursing home.
VERMONT (Brattleboro), Rutland Herald, September 8, 2013
Nursing assistant to go on trial for murder
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130908/THISJUSTIN/709089891/0/FEATURES16
Judge David Suntag rejected the motion from defendant’s attorney, who is charged with murdering one of her nursing home patients, to dismiss related financial exploitation charges. The defendant is accused of injecting an 85-year-old woman of Brattleboro with a fatal dose of insulin on March 23, 2009 — medicine this woman had never taken in her life.
WASHINGTON (Tacoma), Komo news, September 6, 2013
Police: Man scammed elderly dementia patient of at least $50,000
An 86-year-old woman diagnosed with dementia was scammed out of $50,000 dollars by a man who claimed to be a landscaper, and the woman isn't the only one to be fooled, prosecutors say. Victim’s son recently was appointed power-of-attorney for his mother after she had surgery, and noticed his mother had written several large checks to "Dayton's Landscaping" over the course of a year.
INTERNATIONAL (Manchester, United Kingdom), Manchester Evening News, September 7, 2013 (Opinion)
Disabled man raps ‘anti-care’ adult services
John Ashton, who suffers from cerebral palsy, angina and asthma, used to get 20 hours of care a week paid for by Rochdale council, but the authority has slashed this to just three hours a week after re-assessing his needs. John says he believes the council failed to assess his needs properly – even telling the 56-year-old he is capable of making his own meals because he owns a microwave.
INTERNATIONAL (Stockport, United Kingdom), Mail Online, September 8, 2013
Dementia patient was left lying on the floor of care home for two hours because ambulance staff were ‘too busy’ to come and help
An 82-year-old dementia patient lay for hours on the floor after a fall because other emergency calls in the area were prioritized over his. Care home manager Fay Cameron said ambulances normally arrive at Marple Lodge within five minutes of calling them and it was the policy of the home not to move people who had suffered a fall before medical experts had examined them.
RELATED ISSUES
CALIFORNIA (Burbank), 4 NBC Southern California, September 7, 2013
Missing woman with dementia found in Las Vegas
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Police-Search-for-Missing-Woman-with-Dementia-222810511.html
A Burbank woman reportedly with dementia was found in Las Vegas after her family reported her missing, Burbank police said on Saturday. The 80-year-old woman apparently couldn't find the hotel in Oxnard where she was supposed to be for a class reunion on Thursday, so she drove back home and booked a flight to Las Vegas without telling her family, said Lt. Eric Deroian, of the Burbank Police Department.
CALIFORNIA (San Diego), U~T San Diego, September 9, 2013
Crimes go uninvestigated at care homes
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/sep/09/assisted-living-crimes-police-force-state-dss/
The U-T and the Center for Health Reporting at the University of Southern California examined more than 80 possible crimes at San Diego County senior homes in the past 10 years for which criminal investigations were never launched or fizzled due to delays.
FLORIDA, Orlando Sentinel, September 6, 2013 (Opinion)
Florida’s nursing home watch-dog program in turmoil
Author Kate Santich states that in Florida, where nearly one of every five nursing homes is on a state "watch list" for poor care, patient advocates say a federally mandated watch-dog program is crumbling. Don Hering, the Florida Ombudsmen program deputy who abruptly resigned, said the volunteers are devoted, but that the program is suffering at the top — plagued by bureaucrats "more concerned about their careers and building their retirement accounts than the residents."
FLORIDA (Tallahassee), TBO the Tampa Tribune, September 6, 2013
Long-term care watchdog’s office says it remains viable despite upheavals
The Florida Department of Elder Affairs is pushing back against critics who say the state’s watchdog program for long-term-care facilities, which the department oversees, is losing steam after several high-level departures. She was discovered in a tent, according to Sheriff’s deputies, and was wet and disoriented.
IOWA, Press-citizen, September 6, 2013 (Opinion)
Our view: move forward with law against elder abuse
The current Iowa system does not address the needs of older victims of abuse or exploitation who are not considered “dependent” and who do not have a specific “caretaker.” Nor does the current law address the needs of seniors and elderly persons who are the victims of constant verbal or psychological abuse or abandonment, states the Press-Citizen Editorial Board.
IOWA, Times-Republican, September 10, 2013
State ombudsman opens investigation at IVH
The Iowa Ombudsman opened an investigation of the Iowa Veterans Home and filed a subpoena for its investigative records from the Iowa Department of Administrative Services. The investigative request, made by Sen. Daryl Beall, D-Fort Dodge, focuses on the health and safety of IVH residents, Iowa Ombudsman Ruth Cooperrider said.
WASHINGTON (Steven County), KREM, September 8, 2013
Missing woman found in Stevens County
http://www.krem.com/news/local/Missing-woman-found-in-Stevens-County-222896311.html
74-year-old-woman who was described by the Stevens County Sheriff's Office as insulin dependent, taking heart medication, and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease disappeared Friday morning but was found over the weekend.
INTERNATIONAL (Panaji, India), the Times of India, September 9, 2013 (Opinion)
‘Caring for dementia patients a major issue’
Providing the over 5,000 people suffering from dementia in Goa with medical treatment is not a problem, but the real hurdle is finding trained persons to look after them, says Dr. Amit Dias, secretary, Dementia Society of Goa (DSG). He said even where family members are willing to look after the dementia patient, they might not be able to do a good job due to ignorance.
INTERNATIONAL (United Kingdom), News Medical, September 9, 2013
Dementia catheterization rate a ‘cause for concern’
Researchers from the UK have found that patients with dementia presenting in primary care with urinary incontinence are significantly more likely to receive pharmacologic treatment or be catheterized than other patients.
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Funding Opportunities:
- November 1, 2013
- The Lawrence Foundation awards grants in support of the environment, education, human services, disaster relief, and other causes. The foundation awards both program and operating grants with no geographic restrictions to nonprofit organizations that qualify for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, as well as public schools and libraries.
- For more information: http://www.thelawrencefoundation.org/grants/guidelines.php
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Upcoming Elder Abuse Conferences/Training Events (in chronological order):
· The 18th International Conference & Summit on Violence, Abuse & Trauma will be held in San Diego, California on September 8-11, 2013. For more information: http://www.ivatcenters.org/
. The National Center for Victims of Crime’s National Conference will be held September 9-11, in Phoenix, Arizona, and will feature more than 130 leading experts and 72 skill-building workshops. Register at https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=20131952E. Sessions of special interest for those working with elder victims include the plenary "Pathways to Recovery: Helping Victims of Financial Fraud." Learn more and sign up today at www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=20131952E.
Workshops include:
· An Aging Network Response to Victims of Abuse and Neglect
· Financial Exploitation of People Later in Life
· Interstate Abduction Investigations
· Abuse in Later Life
· Expanding your Program Beyond the Traditional SANE Program: Elder Mistreatment, Child Mistreatment, Domestic Violence, and More
· Model Standards for Serving Victims and Survivors of Crime: New Standards on Privacy, Confidentiality, & Data Security
· Healing for Change: Your Wellness Plan and Secondary Trauma Prevention
· The 3rd Annual Sexuality, Intimacy & Aging Conference will be called “Helping to Navigate Challenges in Sexuality & Aging” and will be hosted at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania September 27-28, 2013. For more information: http://saconsortium.eventbrite.com/
· The 33rd Annual Mental Health & Aging Conference, “Innovative Perspectives on Mental Health & Aging,” will be held on October 8, 2013 at The Double Tree in Sacramento, California. For more information: www.sacmhac.net.
· The 24th Annual NAPSA Conference to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota October 2-3, 2013, followed by The 4th Annual NAPSA Summit on Elder Financial Exploitation on October 4, 2013. For more information: http://www.napsa-now.org/get-connected/annual-conference/
· The 20th Annual New York State Adult Abuse Training Institute will be held on October 9-10, 2013 at the Albany Marriott Hotel in Albany, New York. For more information: http://brookdale.org/aati-2013/aati-2013/ To register for the 2013 Adult Abuse Training Institute: Go to brookdale.org, click on the NYS Adult Abuse Training Institute link and download the registration form. Please fax the completed form to (212) 396-7852; or email the completed form to afaustin@hunter.cuny.edu.
· The 37th Annual Consume Voice Conference will be held in Arlington, Virginia October 24-27, 2013. For additional information: http://www.theconsumervoice.org/events/annual-meetings
. The 21st Annual New Mexico Adult Abuse Conference will be held on October 24 and 25, 2013 in Albuquerque, NM . This year’s theme is “A Cornucopia of Learning, Knowledge and Services”. For information, contact Agapito J. Silva at Agapito.silva@state.nm.us or 505-841-4550.
· The 30th Annual Adult Protective Services Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas from November 19-22, 2013. For more information: https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adult_Protection/Adult_Protective_Services_Conference/
· The 2nd Annual National Elder Abuse Symposium, hosted by the California District Attorneys Association, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Anaheim, California on December 3-6, 2013. Register here: http://www.cdaa.org/training/seminar-conference-registration?regevent_action=register&event_id=154
· The 3rd World Congress on Adult Guardianship will be convened on May 28-30, 2014 in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. It is sponsored by the National Guardianship Network in affiliation with the International Guardianship Network. The theme of the conference is, “Promising Practices to Ensure Excellence in Guardianship Around the World.” Proposals for presentations are due July 31. See http://worldcongressguardianship.org
An archived collection of previous newsfeeds is available here:
http://ncea.posthaven.comNational Center on Elder Abuse
Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect
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