Elder Care: Age Bank to Boost Care for Elderly (China)

Age Bank boosts care for China's elderly citizens

Updated Sun. Feb. 8 2009 10:28 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

In a novel experiment to deal with China's massive elderly population, a businessman has developed a so-called age bank, whereby volunteers care for aging neighbours and then bank the hours for their own care when they grow old.

Traditionally, Chinese families have lived under one roof so younger generations can care for their elders.

However, it is estimated that in 40 years, a third of China's population - about 440 million people - will be over the age of 60, and many may not have relatives to care for them.

The businessman, a former land developer named Feng Kexiong who was himself facing retirement, came up with the idea of having younger volunteers put in time caring for the elderly and then cashing out those hours when they need assistance in their later years.

"In this day and age, all the young people go away to work," Feng told CTV News. "And with so many elderly, this age bank was the way to go."

After four years, the bank now has 250 clients and thousands of logged volunteer hours in just a single neighbourhood.

Twenty other cities across China have also opened their own age banks.

© 2009  All Rights Reserved.

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SOURCE:     CTV.CA

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A innovative way of caring for the elderly.  Perhaps other countries should look at this new approach.

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Crossing Guard Accused of Hitting Mother-in-Law (

Crossing guard accused of hitting mother-in-law with stop sign

Friday, Feb 20 2009, 9:37 pm

By Rob Parsons/Staff writer

 

A Willows school crossing guard faces possible assault charges after she allegedly beat her mother-in-law with her school-issued stop sign.

Julie Huntington Price, 44, and the alleged victim, 77-year-old Gay Ramsey, were walking to Price's traffic post around 7:20 a.m. Thursday when they began arguing for unknown reasons, according to a statement from the Willows Police Department.

The argument escalated to the point that Price struck Ramsey with her handheld stop sign and shoved her to the ground at the corner of Villa and Laurel streets, Willows police Chief Bill Spears said.

"The incident seems to have sparked from an old issue between the two concerning some financial arrangements," Spears said Friday.

A friend took Ramsey to Glenn Medical Center, where Spears said she was treated for a head contusion and a broken hand. Ramsey was released from the hospital a short time later, he said.

Spears said Price claims Ramsey was the aggressor, but based on the statements from an independent eyewitness, he said police have no plans to seek any criminal complaint against Ramsey.

"At least at this time," Spears said.

Price was booked into Glenn County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, battery and elder abuse, all felonies. She posted a $42,000 bail bond about six hours later and was released, a jail spokeswoman said.

"There's an incredible amount more to the story than what the police are saying," Price said Friday. "However, my lawyer has advised me not to speak out at this time."

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SOURCE:    Willows Journal - CA, United States

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Free Talk on Elder Abuse (CA. USA)

Free talk on elder abuse 

Julia Wyson, coordinator of the Financial Abuse Specialist Team in Ventura County, will give a free presentation on elder abuse at 11 a.m. Fri., March 6 at the Moorpark Active Adult Center, 799 Moorpark Ave.

Wyson will discuss the prevention, recognition and reporting of financial abuse of elders and dependent adults.

She will screen a 25-minute video titled "Fighting Financial Fraud" and offer free local resources and directories.

For more information or reservations, call (805) 517-6261.

SOURCE:     Moorpark Acorn News

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Elder Care: Red Cross Resorts to GPS System (

Spain: The Red Cross Resorts to the GPS System to Stand Up to Alzheimer's (January 29, 2009)
(Article in Spanish)
The Red Cross will start a pilot program to test monitoring devices that will provide the coordinates of the elderly who wear them. Using GPS technology, the device sends a signal to a dispatcher whenever the carrier passes his or her pre-programmed zone. The Red Cross Contact Center then communicates with his or her family or caretakers. The service will cost 38 euros per month and will be discounted for low-income families. 

SOURCE:   Global Aging.org

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Two Arrested for Elder Abuse (CA. USA)

by Tiffany Revelle -- Staff reporter

02/18/2009

LAKE COUNTY -- Two Kelseyville residents were arrested on charges of elder abuse in separate incidents during the weekend, according to reports from the Lake County Sheriff's Office (LCSO).

Deputies responded to a 9-1-1 call Friday at approximately 10:50 p.m. from Sylar Lane resident Jill Louise Mainer, 43, who reported her roommate had fallen and then hung up the phone, according to LCSO Captain Jim Bauman.

The roommate, 72-year-old Ivan Neuharth, answered when dispatchers called back. Neuharth said Mainer had ordered him to get on his hands and knees and told him she was going to kill him, according to Bauman. Neuharth did not get down on the floor, and told dispatchers Mainer had left the house with a hammer in her hand.

Mainer was booked at the Lake County Jail on felony charges of making criminal threats, disrupting a telephone line and elder abuse. Bauman said Mainer is not believed to have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and the reason for her behavior is unknown. She is held on $10,000 bail.

Afraid for her safety, Lehmann decided to pursue charges against her son, according to Bauman. Waldon was arrested pursuant to a private citizen's arrest. Bauman said there is no limit on reporting elder abuse, which is always charged as a felony during an arrest and booking

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SOURCE:     Lake County Record-Bee

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AG Announced Arrested of 3 Nursing Home Empoloyees (CA. USA)

News Release

February 18, 2009

Brown Announces Arrests of Nursing Home Employees Who Drugged Patients for Staff’s Convenience

BAKERSFIELD –Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the arrests of a nurse, physician, and a pharmacist of a nursing home for “forcibly administering” psychotropic medications for their own convenience, rather than for their patients’ therapeutic interests, actions that are alleged to have resulted in the deaths of three residents. 

“These people maliciously violated the trust of their patients, by holding them down and forcibly administering psychotropic medications if they dared to question their care,” Attorney General Brown said. “This is appalling behavior, which amounts to assault with a deadly weapon.” 

Earlier today, California Department of Justice special agents arrested three individuals: 

• Gwen Hughes, the former Director of Nursing at the skilled nursing facility of the Kern Valley Healthcare District in Lake Isabella, Kern County on charges of elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. 

• Debbi Hayes, the former pharmacist at the Valley Healthcare District, on charges of elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. 

• Dr. Hoshang Pormir, a staff physician at Kern Valley Healthcare District, who was serving as the medical director of the skilled nursing facility, on charges of elder abuse. 

Upon taking over as Director of Nursing in September 2006, Gwen Hughes ordered that Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients be given high doses of psychotropic medications to make them more tranquil and easy to control. She ordered the administration of these medications to patients who argued with her, were noisy, or who were otherwise disruptive. Two patients who resisted were held down and forcibly given injections. 

Ms. Hughes is also alleged to have directed Debbi Hayes, the hospital pharmacist, to fill prescriptions for these psychotropic medications. Hayes wrote and filled these prescriptions without first obtaining a doctor’s approval. 

Dr. Hoshang Pormir approved these psychotropic medications only some time after they had been administered and without examining the patients first and determining whether these psychotropic medications were medically necessary. 

Several of these patients are alleged to have had medical complications as a result of being given these psychotropic medications, including lethargy and the inability to eat or drink properly. It is believed that that three patients died and one patient suffered great bodily injury as a result. 

Criminal charges were filed in Kern County Superior Court. The defendants are being held in Kern County Jail in Bakersfield. They will be arraigned on Friday. If convicted, the defendants could face up to 11 years in prison. 

The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, with the co-operation and assistance of the Kern County District Attorney’s Office. 

To report elder abuse or Medi-Cal fraud, call the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse’s hotline at (800) 722-0432. 

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SOURCE:   AG of California USA

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Selfless yet betrayed by an NHS which would sink without them

By HELEN CLARK
18th February 2009

Yesterday, I switched on the radio to hear the former TV newsreader John Suchet speaking with moving eloquence about Alzheimer's. 

His account - and his admission that he had kept the illness secret for several years to spare his wife the 'betrayal and discourtesy' of publicly disclosing it - held a special potency for me. 

I felt hugely grateful to him for speaking out, and thereby giving voice to legions of silent sufferers and their carers.

I understand the anguish that dementia brings to those who live with it - and their families. Plus, I know that nationwide there is a stoic, ill-supported brigade of unpaid carers - partners, children, grandchildren - whose devotion is saving our Government millions of pounds each year. Without these carers, the NHS would go under.

And throughout those agonising years I, a former Labour MP, watched this Government prevaricate, postulate and pennypinch, while denying to those who need it the care they deserve. Last week, Health Secretary Alan Johnson compounded the problem by unveiling a document which trumpeted its intention to install a 'dementia adviser' overseeing a network of 'memory clinics'.

What use is this to carers and sufferers? We do not need to be fobbed off with such patronising and insulting initiatives. We need money to fund research, help and remuneration for those selfless souls who daily sacrifice their own lives to look after their loved ones.

Unless those of us who have close experience of this wicked disease speak out, the Government will continue to ignore its duty. And the nation's silent army of carers will continue to be exploited. I'm fed up with platitudes and empty initiatives. I believe the Government and the NHS betrayed my mother and my mother-in-law.

On behalf of these two wonderful women, I now beg the Government to give fair recompense to those who care for relatives at home. It is a thankless, heartbreaking task, and it demands true recognition and proper financial remuneration.

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SOURCE:   The Daily Mail, UK

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A touching article. Please go to source for full-text. I believe that the same sort of thing is occurring around the world.  Unless the rest of us keep speaking out for the voiceless, the issues will be "swept under the carpet".

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Care Home Administrator Charged

BY PETER E. BORTNER
STAFF WRITER

February 18, 2009

ORWIGSBURG 

The former administrator of Pinebrook Personal Care Center is headed to Schuylkill County Court after waiving her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday on charges she stole almost $17,000 from the facility and four residents.

Sharon L. Haley, 55, of 302 Millstone Drive, Mountville, formerly of Reading, left without saying anything after Magisterial District Judge James R. Ferrier bound over for court five counts each of theft, theft by deception and theft by failure to make required disposition. All charges are felonies.

Ferrier allowed Haley to remain free on $10,000 unsecured bail pending further court action.

Trooper First Class Denny Grimm of the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Harrisburg charged Haley with taking the money in five stages between Jan. 1, 2006, and Aug. 21, 2007, while she was administrator of the center, 2 Woodbridge Road, Pinebrook, West Brunswick Township.

Those actions, according to police, included:

• Writing $8,950 worth of checks against the Pinebrook Resident Trust Fund bank account. Haley cashed those checks and kept the money for her own use, recording the checks either as void or written to a fictitious person or entity, according to police.

Assistant District Attorney A.J. Serina and Assistant Public Defender Christopher W. Hobbs, Haley’s lawyer, each declined to comment on the case.

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SOURCE:     The Republican Herald

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Battery Alleged in Abuse of Mother (CA. USA)

Battery alleged in abuse of mother

By Staff Reports

02/18/2009

WILLOWS — A 59-year-old Maryland woman has been arrested on suspicion of causing multiple injuries to her 93-year-old mother at her Willows home.

On Thursday a caretaker for the elderly woman called police to report a friend who takes care of the victim found her on the floor of her home suffering from multiple injuries.

Police responded and found the elderly woman sitting in a recliner. She was found to have injuries to her head, face, shoulders, knees and lower legs, and was transported by ambulance to Glenn Medical Center in Willows.

The woman's daughter, Susan Ivy, of Bel Air Ha, Md., was also found at the residence and taken into custody after questioning. She was booked into the Glenn County Jail in Willows on suspicion of elder physical abuse. She subsequently posted a bond on $35,000 bail and was released.

Adult Protective Services was notified and responded to Glenn Medical Center to open an investigation.

SOURCE:    

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Elder Abuse Network Offers Help (On. Canada)

Group educating public on how to recognize guises

By PEGGY ARMSTRONG,

LINDSAY POST REPORTER

February 18, 2009

KAWARTHA LAKES -Abuse of the elderly takes many guises, but Karen Anderson is determined to educate the public on how to recognize them and how to prevent physical, financial and emotional misuse.

Anderson is coordinator of the Haliburton Kawartha Lakes Elder Abuse Prevention Network. In her quest to protect some of the community's most vulnerable citizens, she has had a brochure printed that explains some of the forms that abuse can take and signs that a senior citizen may be experiencing it.

She presented the new brochure to the Committee Of the Whole (COW) last Tuesday and gave a presentation to councillors on the network's goals and accomplishments.

Anderson is taking "a two-pronged approach," she told The Lindsay Post prior to her presentation. "I have my five minutes with council," she said, to provide an overview of the network. In the fall she plans to launch the second prong, to go back to council and present what the network has accomplished and then lay out what financial assistance the network needs to remain viable.

To contact the Elder Abuse Prevention Network call 324-7323 or 1-800-461-0327. The website iswww.community-care.on.ca

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SOURCE:    The Linday Post

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