Care Facilities Operator Charged With Embezzlement (USA)

Care facilities operator charged with embezzlement

BY JANET LAVELLE

DECEMBER 15, 2010

The operator of three residential care facilities in Chula Vista and El Cajon has been arraigned on 26 felony counts after allegedly embezzling almost $665,000 from the bank accounts of two residents shortly before and after their deaths.

Maria Corazon Park, 54, is accused of financial elder abuse, forgery, money laundering and other charges. She was arraigned Dec. 9 in San Diego Superior Court and is being held on $500,000 bond at Las Colinas Detention Facility. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Deputy Attorney General Carlos Chavarria, who is prosecuting the case, said Park endeared herself to Fred Figueroa, 91, and George Vickey, 89, to obtain access to their finances. The alleged frauds were uncovered by a suspicious Wells Fargo Bank employee, according to a state investigator’s report.

Abridged
SOURCE:     SignOnSanDiego
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New Homecare Regulations Promised (IRELAND)

New homecare regulations promised

December 14, 2010

By LUKE CASSIDY

Statutory regulation to control standards in the private homecare services sector may be in place next year, Minister of State with responsibility for Older People Áine Brady said earlier today.

Ms Brady said the Department of Health is examining regulation for the sector and while she couldn’t put a time frame on a completion date, she expects it “sometime next year”.

She was speaking after details emerged last night of substandard and inappropriate levels of care in the sector.

The Health Service Executive has begun a review of homecare services supplied to 65,000 older people following a series of complaints and a television news report.

The executive said it was “taking seriously” allegations that a number of private providers were failing to meet basic standards in the provision of care.

An investigation by RTÉ’s Prime Time  showed several instances where it appeared that vulnerable elderly people had received inadequate care, and, in at least one case, had been mistreated by a member of staff.

The programme showed an elderly woman apparently being force fed by a care attendant working for Clontarf Home Care Services. The company said three members of staff had been suspended on full pay pending an investigation.

The company said it was a not-for-profit community-based health care provider and had been proving homecare help for 38 years.

Ms Brady said it was clear the behaviour and practices highlighted in the programme constituted “an unacceptable” breach of trust.

“I am particularly concerned at the effects that any breach of trust has on the care recipients and their families and loved ones,” she said.

Ms Brady said there were 150 private providers catering for around 6,000 elderly people in their homes across the country.

While the Health Information and Quality Authority regulates standards in private nursing homes, the home care sector remains unregulated and there is no legal obligation on the providers to vet staff.

Abridged
SOURCE:     The Irish Times
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Homecare Services Spark Litany of Complaints to HSE (IRELAND)

Homecare services spark litany of complaints to HSE

December 14, 2010

By EITHNE DONNELLAN, Health Correspondent

FAMILIES USING a number of private homecare providers have been complaining to the HSE for more than three years about the quality of care provided to their loved ones, it has emerged.

The complaints have revolved around staff such as home helps and homecare assistants not turning up, turning up late, being verbally abusive to older people, giving the wrong medication, having very poor English and very poor skills to do their job.

Details of the complaints have been released under the Freedom of Information Act to Dermot Kirwan of the Friends of the Elderly organisation.

He said yesterday the letters of complaint released to him covered the greater Dublin area and were mainly about homecare services provided by private companies.

Thousands of families are given homecare packages every year under which they can buy home help and other services from private providers. There are now about 150 such providers in the State.

One complainant alleged an elderly lady was left soiled in her bed all weekend because the homecare assistant never turned up. When the family phoned the homecare company’s office there was nobody there.

Another said her doubly-incontinent mother “had three different carers in six days”, which meant there could be no continuity of care.

A third said a carer visited 15 times but didn’t give their relative a shower.

Mr Kirwan said the whole area needed to be regulated. “The threat of random checks would change things considerably,” he said.

“These people who are caring for the housebound or bed-bound elderly behind closed doors in the most personal and intimate way are unregistered, unregulated and unsupervised,” he said.

“It is a national disgrace, if I want to run a nursing home I need a licence, if I want to be a taxi driver I need a licence, yet I can start a homecare company without notifying anyone apart from the companies office . . . if something is not done soon, we will have another Leas Cross on our hands.”

Abridged
SOURCE:   The Irish Times


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Elder Abuse Awareness

Elder Abuse Awareness

A task force in Ingham County is spreading awareness and investigating cases of elder abuse.

Dec 14, 2010

By Meaghan M. Norman

If a child is being neglected it's much easier for Protective Services to go into the home than it is with an adult.
"The adult world is very different from the child world," said Sgt. Traci Ruiz with the Lansing Police Department. "It's much easier to hide that crime because they'll cancel doctor's appointments, there's not much food in the home -- medications not being distributed."
Sgt. Ruiz is the co-chair of the Elder Death Review Task Force which monitors abuse in those 60 years old and up.
"By us coming together at the table, helps us save resources, time and money," said Sgt. Ruiz.


About 75 percent of all elder abuse cases take place in the home, behind closed doors. Nursing homes like the Senior Care and Rehab Center in Holt do what they can to promote awareness and has a checks and balances system in place to guard against abuse.
Wendy Briggs is the activity director at the Holt Rehab facility and says there is a board made up of interdepartmental members and even residents that investigate any claims of abuse. And awareness is the first step in reporting neglect, which Sgt. Ruiz says is not necessarily on the rise, but the more people know, the more cases the task force investigates.
"The first case we investigated resulted in a homicide."


That case was back in 2007 of 94 year old Margaret Robinson. Police say her caretaker of 16 years, Ira Gudith killed her Gudith was convicted of second degree murder and is currently serving a 15 year sentence. An autopsy is what alluded officials to her suspicious death.


"We did the team approach and we had the medical examiner's office on board where they actually did order autopsies and that's where we've been able to determine and find a lot of these crimes, is through the autopsies."
December is the four year anniversary of the task force. The committee meets once a month and is made up of representatives from law enforcement, the attorney general's office, health officials and adult protective services.


SOURCE:    WLIX
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Bupa Care Home Staff Tormented Dementia Victims (UK)

Bupa care home staff tormented dementia victims and recorded their 'despicable' acts on their mobile phones

By CHRIS BROOKE

15th December 2010

They were elderly, suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s Disease and needed the best possible care at their Bupa nursing home.

Instead the frail residents were bullied, assaulted and terrorised by care workers who recorded their ‘despicable’ behaviour on their mobile phones for fun.

Yesterday the ‘appalling’ video footage of a vulnerable 99-year-old woman and a man of 86 being mistreated by their three carers led to the carers being jailed.

The five minutes of blurred video, which was played at Bradford Crown Court, shows the carers laughing at the helpless pensioners, grabbing and poking them, taunting them and shoving phones into their face and mouth.

The elderly man, Kenneth Costigan, has an expression of ‘stark terror’ on his face, and is shown ‘cowering’ and burying his head in his hands in ‘utter despair’

Edith Askham, who died later aged 100, is shown being bullied and treated roughly as she sits helplessly on the floor pleading ‘help me…I am frightened’.

Recorder Richard Mansell, QC, was clearly outraged by the defendants’ actions, which he described as ‘inhuman and degrading’.

The judge said supervisor Paul Poole, 26, and assistant care workers Jolene Hullah, 21, and Tanzeela Safdar, 23, had committed a ‘gross breach of trust’.

Earlier, when it was suggested that Hullah, who was 19 at the time, had not received adequate training, the judge was barely able to conceal his fury commenting: ‘You don’t need training in ordinary human decency.

The judge made a point of stressing that the care home owners and management were in no way to blame for what happened.

Abridged

SOURCE:     The Daily Mail UK

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Human Cost of Threatened Care Home Closures (WALES)

Human cost of threatened care home closures

Dec 12 2010 

by Sion Morgan, Wales On Sunday

Here, as the High Court prepares to stand in judgement this week, Sion Morgan explores the human cost of the threatened closure of care homes...

Vulnerable residents at Pencoed care home rejoiced in a song and dance on Armistice Day.

Forgetting their age and physical ailments, the frail grandmums and granddads donned military uniforms and clothing from their youth to remember The Fallen.

Their faces told the story of a group enjoying a new lease of life in familiar and comfortable surroundings.

And yet, unknown to these war heroes, community pillars and beloved elders, men in suits are working in council offices and courtrooms to decide on their future.

More than 80 elderly residents face losing their care because four independent homes in Pembrokeshire, including Pencoed, are under threat of closure.

The homes’ owners have won the right to a High Court judicial review to investigate their claim that the county council is “chronically under paying” fees for the service.

The residents’ families have now spoken out in a desperate bid to have their elderly loved ones’ fears voiced.

Abridged

SOURCE:        WalesOnline

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Nursing Home Inspection Data Cryptic, Hard to Find (USA)

BY FRANK X. MULLEN JR

DECEMBER 12, 2010

In Nevada, it's easier to find out about complaints against a home improvement contractor than it is to look up complaints about nursing homes.

The state's Aging and Disability Services Division opened 661 nursing home cases in the fiscal year that ended in September, with a total of 1,173 complaints investigated within those cases. Complaints regarding allegations of elder abuse are referred to the Elder Protective Service program.

But those complaints, except for the aggregate numbers, aren't public record. Last week, the Aging and Disability Services Division was unable to provide information about the disposition of individual nursing home-related complaints to the Reno Gazette-Journal by press time.

"Hospitals, nursing homes and all health care facilities need to be accountable to the public they serve."

Abridged
SOURCE:    RGJ.COM
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Seniors' Groups Are Calling for a National DOB-IN Line (AUSTRALIA)

SENIORS' groups are calling for a national dob-in line.

Their call comes after a string of high-profile manslaughter prosecutions of carers accused of killing their bed-ridden mothers.

Queensland authorities have laid charges against at least five in recent months, all accused of neglecting elderly women in their care.

In one case, a Brisbane woman was handed a five-year sentence for killing her mother, who died with maggot-ridden bedsores that penetrated deep into her muscle and bone.

Council of the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates yesterday called for a national approach to deal with the problem of "elder abuse", which he said was likely to continue with the ageing population.

"One of the problems is that when people suspect elder abuse, they don't know who to call," said Mr Yates. "What we need is a national 1-800 number."

Lillian Jeter, executive director of the Elder Abuse Prevention Association, called for mandatory reporting legislation, which would compel carers and health professionals to report any suspected abuse.

"But the first step has to be 1-800 lines that people can call if they see something," she said.

Mandatory reporting currently exists only in residential care, as a result of revelations in 2006 that elderly residents of a Victorian aged care home had been sexually abused.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O'Neill said every death was a tragedy but questioned the practicality of increasing oversight of carers.

"People often underestimate the demand placed on carers and the stress levels they have to deal with, particularly if they're caring for someone with a significant illness," Mr O'Neill said.

SOURCE:     The Australian


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Human Rights Day 2010

Human Rights Day 2010: Reflections on a great year for older people's rights

By Jennifer Williams

10th December 2010

Today is Human Rights Day; the theme for this year is human rights defenders who work to end discrimination.

Being part of HelpAge International and working on our Age Demands Action campaign, marking the importance of those defending human rights seems particularly significant.

And this year perhaps even more than others. 

As an organisation we've achieved so much, as have the older people around the world we work with. And clearly Human Rights Day is the best day to do it!

Global action on human rights

Firstly, in October we worked with thousands of rights defenders through the older men and women in 50 countries around the world who spoke up to defend their rights as part of the Age Demands Actioncampaign.

There were marches with brass band processions and involving celebrities like Kenyan football legend,Joe Kadenge. World renowned South African trumpeter, singer and composer Hugh Masekela also lent his support to older people's rights.

There were also exhibitions of older people's handicrafts and interactive radio talkshows in Indonesia;and in Bangladesh older people formed human chains to ask for an increase in their old age allowance.

Read more about our campaigns and our work for the rights of older people

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SOURCE:     HelpAge.Org
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Daughter in Fatal Elder Abuse Case Faces Indictment (USA)

Daughter in fatal elder abuse case faces indictment

By Kevin P. O'Connor

Herald News Staff Reporter

Dec 09, 2010 

A grand jury will announce indictments Friday, against Karen Cabral, the woman charged with severely neglecting her mother.

Cabral’s mother, who was 80 years old, died two days after she was taken to the hospital for treatment of bedsores and a blood infection.

Lawyer Kenneth Van Colen, who represents Cabral, told District Court First Judge Gilbert Nadeau that Cabral, 49, will be indicted and is scheduled for arraignment in Superior Court on Dec. 15.


Abridged
SOURCE:     The Herald News
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