Newsfeed – Friday, November 1, 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
NATIONAL, AARP BLOG, October 29, 2013
Managing mom’s money? Do it right.
http://blog.aarp.org/2013/10/29/managing-moms-money-do-it-right/
Stacks of unopened bills, calls from creditors, compulsive purchases from websites or TV shopping networks, donating sums of money to questionable charities — these may be the signs that it’s time to talk to your mom and dad about managing their finances, the author states. The guides are designed to help educate people who act as fiduciaries, meaning their decisions are in the parents’ best interest.
NATIONAL, Bankrate, October 29, 2013
What’s a fiduciary look like?
http://www.bankrate.com/financing/retirement/whats-a-fiduciary-look-like/
Today the CFPB introduced four guides written to help financial caregivers understand their responsibilities and how to carry them out. Eisenhower estimates that 22 million people in the United States have taken on these kinds of formal and informal responsibilities, including simply agreeing to hold power of attorney for a spouse or someone close to them in the event that it becomes necessary to make a financial decision on their behalf.
NATIONAL, Forbes, October 30, 2013
Four rules for managing your aging parents’ money
About 22 million people age 60 or older have named someone in a power of attorney to make financial decisions for them—and millions of others have court-appointed guardians or other fiduciaries, according to the CFPB. The guides released by CFPB are meant to help people with legal authority to handle other people’s money—but they could be used to serve as a warning for people who are handling other people’s money without the appropriate legal authority.
NATIONAL, National Mortgage Professional, October 30, 2013
CFPB publishes guidelines for financial caregivers
http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news44425/CFPB-Publishes-Guidelines-Financial-Caregivers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published four guides to help financial caregivers, particularly those who handle the finances of older Americans, carry out their duties and responsibilities in managing someone else’s money. The CFPB released guides that explain the four main responsibilities of a fiduciary.
NATIONAL, Reverse Mortgage Daily, October 29, 2013
CFPB releases new fiduciary guides to protect senior population
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today released a series of guides, “Managing Other People’s Money,” for caregivers and fiduciaries spanning family members and friends who manage money for their older parents, friends or relatives. The four booklets are geared toward people who serve different roles from power of attorney to court-appointed guardian, trustees, and those appointed by a government agency to manage certain types of finances, such as Social Security payments.
NATIONAL, The New York Times, October 30, 2013
New guidelines aim to help financial caregivers
Many people don’t have experience acting in the capacity as a lay fiduciary, so the CFPB this week published a series of guidelines to help agents and others make sure they’re following the rules. The “Managing Someone Else’s Money” guides —four in all, depending on the legal situation that results in you having responsibility for someone else’s finances — are available free online. They will also be distributed to banks, social service agencies and Area Agencies on Aging.
ALABAMA (Gardendale), ABC 3340, October 31, 2013
Gardendale couple arrested for stealing over $24,000 from 88-year-old woman
http://www.abc3340.com/story/23842994/gardendale-couple-arrested-for-elder-abuse
Deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office say a Gardendale Couple stole more than $24,000 from a victim. Detectives say the niece of the 88-year-old victim reported there was suspicious transactions on her checking account and credit card accounts.
CALIFORNIA (Castro Valley), San Francisco Chronicle, November 1, 2013
Cook, janitor heroes when caregivers walked away
Miguel Alvarez, 33 recalls being (at times) the only person caring for the abandoned residents of Valley Springs Manor last week, in his home that he shares with his mother, wife, son and step son October 31, 2013 in San Leandro, Calif. Alvarez started working as a part time janitor at Valley Springs Manor on October 7th and says he was supposed to be paid on the 25th but now he doesn't know if he will ever receive payment.
CALIFORNIA (Castro Valley), NBC Bay Area, October 28, 2013
Castro Valley assisted living facility shut down, patients abandoned
Sheriff's deputies removed more than a dozen senior patients from a Northern California assisted living facility in Saturday after it was determined that they had been left "abandoned" there by the owners and staff. Responding paramedics became concerned after they found that most of the staff had left and only a skeleton crew remained, Sgt. J.D. Nelson said.
CALIFORNIA (Castro Valley), Contra Costa Times News, October 30, 2013
Castro Valley senior home residents moving to nursing homes as investigators launch elder abuse probe
One former resident of Valley Springs Manor is missing and about 14 others are moving from hospital rooms to skilled nursing homes as the Alameda County Sheriff's Office pursues a criminal investigation into whether elders were abused at the now-shut residential care facility. Investigators from an FBI health care fraud unit and the state Attorney General's office are convening with local law enforcement officials Thursday to discuss a probe that could last for months.
CALIFORNIA (Napa), Napa Valley Register, October 29, 2013
Daughter enters no-contest plea for abuse of mother
A woman arrested after allegedly assaulting her 76-year-old mother Oct. 14 has pleaded no contest to elder abuse, according to court records. The elderly woman had previously obtained a restraining order after her daughter allegedly tried to grab her 12-year-old daughter from a vehicle, according to the restraining order. Dukes’ mother has guardianship of the girl, according to court documents.
CALIFORNIA (San Francisco), Lawyers and Settlements, October 31, 2013
Elderly doctor ripped off for $3.5 million fraud
In 2004, a young San Francisco attorney, Wade Anthony Robertson, met a wealthy 77-year-old doctor from Maryland and convinced him to put his money into scheme. In September 2013, nine years after the older man’s unfortunate first meeting with Robertson, a judge in the case found Robertson “culpable of moral turpitude by engaging in a scheme to defraud, misrepresentation and abusing the legal process,” as noted in the California Bar Journal.
IOWA (Des Moines), USA Today, October 30, 2013
Nursing home chief fined in sex assault case
An Iowa nursing home administrator has been fined $500 for allegedly failing to protect residents from a convicted sex offender. The board said former administrator of the nursing home should have known resident William Cubbage posed a threat to other residents of the home and that she failed to protect those residents from the threat.
MICHIGAN (Wayne County), Observer & Eccentric, October 29, 2013
Case involving Canton dementia patients heads to trial
A Westland woman is facing trial on felony larceny charges after police say she is suspected of stealing jewelry from two dementia patients while working as a health care employee at Crystal Creek, a Canton assisted living center. Relatives of the victims notified the assisted living center’s administration, which in turn contacted police to report the alleged thefts.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (Portsmouth), Sea Coast Online, October 30, 2013
Judge: Officer’s inheritance dispute must be heard in public
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20131030-NEWS-131039980
A Rockingham Superior Court judge has ruled that details related to a dispute over a police officer's $1.8 million inheritance should remain public. The estate is being disputed by multiple parties, which allege the woman had dementia when she executed the new estate plans and that Sgt. Aaron Goodwin unduly influenced her before she named him her primary beneficiary.
NEW JERSEY (Leonia), Cliff View Pilot, October 30, 2013
Police: women conned Leonia man, 89, out of $134,000, went after his house
http://cliffviewpilot.com/police-women-conned-leonia-man-89-out-of-134000-went-after-his-house/
Two women accused of scamming an 89-year-old Leonia man out of $134,000 were about to get him to leave his half-million dollar home to them when a social services worker called borough detectives who rescued the man from financial ruin, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning. Edwards, 24, and Butch, 26, were being held on $150,000 each in the Bergen County Jail, charged with theft by deception and improper behavior.
NEW YORK (Brooklyn), The Jewish Voice, October 30, 2013
Brooklyn DA Hynes announces $400,000 Federal grant to address elder abuse
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes in partnership with the Jewish Association Serving the Aging (“JASA”) recently announced that Brooklyn is one of only nine jurisdictions in the country, and the first in New York City, to win a $400,000 federal elder abuse grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The grant will fund a program called “Enhanced Training and Services to End Violence Against and Abuse of Women Later in Life,” that will bring together the expertise of the Brooklyn D.A.’s Elder Abuse Unit, NYPD and JASA.
OHIO (Cleveland), Pro Publica, October 29, 2013
Elderly, at risk, and haphazardly protected
http://www.propublica.org/article/elderly-at-risk-and-haphazardly-protected
Workers found 82-year-old Vincenzina Pontoni submerged in a deep whirlpool bathtub. She had drowned. Her care chart stated that facility workers were to stand by while she was bathing “for safety”, but records show she had been unsupervised for at least an hour that day in 2010, with deadly consequences. Despite the growing demands on care in assisted living, most states set the entry bar low for facility workers, requiring little in the way of education or qualifications the article states.
OHIO (Huron), Sandusky Register, October 29, 2013
Daughter arrested after alleged elder abuse incident
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/crime/4826246
A Huron woman was arrested Wednesday after she allegedly hit her 86-year-old mother. The mother told authorities the abuse has been ongoing for more than a year, according to a Huron police report.
WASHINGTON (Snohomish County), Edmonds Beacon, October 30, 2013
Elder abuse an ‘invisible’ problem in Snohomish County
http://edmondsbeacon.villagesoup.com/p/elder-abuse-an-invisible-problem-in-snohomish-county/1075392
Though many aren’t aware of it, elder abuse is a problem in Snohomish County. A panel of experts discussed on Oct. 23 the invisible issue of abuse of older adults in Snohomish County due to underreporting and a shortage of resources, as well as the county’s efforts to prevent elder abuse and provide services to victims.
INTERNATIONAL (Ottawa, Canada), Sun News, October 30, 2013
Four Ottawa men convicted of stealing $577,000 from ING clients
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2013/10/20131030-142454.html
A jury convicted four men Wednesday who leached away $577,000 from two ING customers. Ahmed Adam, 38, the inside man, set the wheels in motion for the gang to siphon $497,000 from an 80-year-old Toronto senior, the article states.
INTERNATIONAL (Cheshire, United Kingdom), Mirror, October 30, 2013
OAP who beat wife to death after row over heating bill is jailed for five years
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/douglas-bailey-oap-who-beat-2652989
A dementia patient who beat his elderly wife to death after a row over the heating bill was today jailed for five years. "Our investigation has uncovered a history of domestic abuse between the couple, which unfortunately was never reported to police” Detective Inspector Helen Spooner said.
INTERNATIONAL (Gloucestershire, United Kingdom), This is Gloucestershire, October 31, 2013
‘Safeguarding message getting through’ after huge increase in reports of vulnerable adults
The nationally reported rise in safeguarding concerns is a result of UK-wide media interest in adult safeguarding issues following the Government’s Winterbourne View Report. When combined with work from safeguarding board partners in Gloucestershire to raise awareness of safeguarding, this has informed greater understanding of how to keep vulnerable adults safe, the board said.
ABUSE OF ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES
MINNESOTA (Beltrami County), Star Tribune, October 29, 2013
A Beltrami County inmate was jailed, beaten-then freed
http://www.startribune.com/local/229802021.html
A mentally ill inmate was severely beaten in the Beltrami County jail last month — and then abruptly released from custody by a judge so the county would not have to pay his medical bills, according to documents obtained by the Star Tribune. The judge also failed to ensure that the inmate would be returned to custody — and receive proper psychiatric care — after being released from the Minneapolis hospital where he was treated, according to court officials.
PENNSYLVANIA (Philadelphia), The Pennsylvania Record, October 30, 2013
Mother of Tacony ‘dungeon’ captive sues Philly and city officials over daughter’s placement
The mother of one of the captives in what came to be known as the Tacony dungeon’ case has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and various officials over allegations that officials negligently placed her daughter in the care of the girl’s aunt, Linda Ann Weston, despite the woman’s prior criminal convictions. U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger previously said that Weston, her daughter and three other people ran a criminal enterprise by detaining the 10 adults, all of who suffered from developmental disabilities.
RELATED ISSUES
NATIONAL, Yakima Herald, October 30, 2013
Aging LGBT community often forced back into the closet
But older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, including those among the first to come out as a political and social force, are increasingly apprehensive about encountering discrimination as they grow older and more dependent on strangers for care. Fear of discrimination from other residents was almost as high as fear of discrimination from staff, the survey found, and 43 percent said they had experienced mistreatment at facilities.
PENNSYLVANIA (Philadelphia), CBS Philly, October 30, 2013
Police: missing Phila. Man with dementia killed in NY car accident
Police now say a missing man suffering from dementia was killed in an auto accident on Tuesday. The ninety-eight-year-old Philadelphia man went missing on October 28th. Police were actively searching for him as of Tuesday, Oct. 29th.
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Funding Opportunities:
- November 7, 2013
- Pre-applications for grants from the Impact Fund for nonprofit legal firms, private attorneys, or small law firms that advance social justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, or poverty law. Grants of up to $25,000 each will support public-interest litigation that will potentially benefit a large number of people, lead to significant law reform, or raise public consciousness.
- For more information contact: Impact Fund, 125 University Avenue, Suite 102, Berkeley, Calif. 94710; (510) 845-3473; http://impactfund.org/?page_id=698
- November 8, 2013
- Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize will honor up to three individuals under the age of 40 who have demonstrated leadership in their fields, and who show creativity, commitment, and extraordinary accomplishment in advancing positive social change. Each winner will receive $100,000, half of which will go to an organization committed to the winner’s area of social justice.
- Additional information is available on the foundation’s Web site. Contact: Grinnell College, P.O. Box 805, Grinnell, Iowa 50112; prize@grinnell.edu; http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/studentaffairs/chaplain/socialjusticeprize
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Upcoming Elder Abuse Conferences/Training Events (in chronological order):
· The 2nd Annual Elder Planning Symposium, hosted by the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA), will be held at the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 7, 2013. Register here: http://www.ficpa.org/Public/Conference/Description.aspx?courseID=13ELDR. You can also visit https://www.facebook.com/events/518843064859824/ for more information.
· The New York City JASA Elder Abuse Training Institute has new training classes for Fall 2013. For more details and registration information click here: http://jasa.org/sites/default/files/NextAct_Catalog_Final_8.9.13.pdf Contact Martha Pollack for further questions: 718-286-1540 or mpollack@jasa.org
· The ABA’s (American Bankers Association) Annual Money Laundering Enforcement Conference in Washington DC will be held on November 18, 2013. There will be a panel on “The Financial Institution’s Role in Preventing Elder Financial Exploitation” presenting twice. For more information: http://www.aba.com/Training/Conferences/Pages/MLE_Schedule.aspx
· 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.com
National Center on Elder Abuse
Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect
University of California, Irvine
Program in Geriatrics
101 The City Drive South
Orange, CA 92868
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