Guardianships - The latest Tool for Extracting funds from the Incapacitated and now their Family Members too

http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1161177

Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens is on the rise at alarming rates.

The very systems that should be protecting these victims are failing miserably.

What's worse is some of those systems meant to protect these vulnerable people who are already hurting and need help have become a mechanisms that can and is used to perpetrate abuse and financial exploitation against them. In fact Guardianship are now being used as a tool to exploit money from estates and from their family members as well who are vulnerable to the complex legal system that are assaulted in.

This Share is dedicated to providing education to other so that they can help us help those who are in need.
Once a person is put into guaridanship (a legal instrument) they most often lose all of their civil rights and constitutional rights. It doesn't seem right that a person can become essentially a non-person, a person who has lost their birthrights as citizens of this great nation founded on these very principles. It doesn't seem right that a person can lose their right to their own property. But in happens every single day in America, in courts all over this land in our State Courts.
To protect is the goal of the instruments that appoint another as the "decider" for another. There are two such instruments: one is guardianship of the person and the other is guardianship of the property or conservatorship.
There are other less instrusive means of providing surrogate decision making for an person who is unable to manage their own affairs. For centuries family and loved ones have stepped in to help a loved one.
Guardianships were meant to be used as a very last resort for those who had no one else there to help them. Today however this instrument is being abused by those who find it as a means to reward themselves financially from the assets of a person who has no say whatsoever over their own money and property.
Quite simply put these people are easy pickings and the law has created the incredibly easy to abuse instrument for others including greedy relatives, lawyers, professional fiduciarys and others to abuse. When you had a elderly widow with an estate worth millions there are those who will jump at the opportunity to be that persons gaurdian because the system is set up for them to be paid from the fund that they manage, the ward's estate.
This opportunity leads to numerous petitions for guardianship that are entirely unwarranted and the unnessesary and inappropriate declaration of incompetance of a person who is just old and perhaps forgettful or just basically in need of a helping hand.
Today the abuse of our Elderly is being worsened by the abuses occuring in guardianships and conservatorship.
We need to all work to stop this problem or we will be victims one day.
ELDER ABUSE VICTIMS ADVOCATES

Conflict resolution expands to seniors

By Nanci L. Valcke
Posted: 06/09/2009 01:22:31 PM PDT
Updated: 06/09/2009 01:22:32 PM PDT
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Sometimes people fight, then kiss or shake hands, and make up. But there are cases when quarrels escalate into what seems like unsolvable feuds.
Unfortunately, when a senior is involved, there's often a crime, says Deputy District Attorney Jason Peck, and the dispute ends up in a court where the outcome is determined. Rarely is either party satisfied.
Today, those in the aging population affected by family disputes don't know where to go for help, and when a crime is involved, are reluctant to bring charges against their adult child who often is the offender, he says.
Therefore, the Center for Human Development's Conflict Resolution program, which has served Contra Costa County for 25 years, is expanding its planning, training and networking to include more elder mediation.
"I think the need is overwhelming now," says Barbara Proctor, program director. "In the future, it's going to be higher."
Currently, the program relies on referrals.
"We refer to them," says Virginia George, supervisor of JFK Elder Law Clinic in Pleasant Hill, which opened in 2005 and provides legal assistance to those 60 and older who have been the victims of financial abuse.
"Often, their adult children take advantage. Mediation offers the elder to get something back without going into litigation."

(continued here ) http://www.contracostatimes.com/contracostacounty/ci_12554016

The shame of elder abuse

Agencies report rates of neglect, mistreatment are on the rise Agencies report rates of neglect, mistreatment are on the rise
By Rita Savard, rsavard@lowellsun.com
Updated: 06/09/2009 08:22:50 AM EDT
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San Ou, who escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has allegedly been a victim of elder abuse in Lowell from her own stepson. She is holding an old photograph of her mother and father. SUN/David H. Brow
Related
ABUSE
Jun 9:
Detecting Signs of abuse
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LOWELL -- Sitting in her warm, dark living room, the woman thumbs through old photographs.
It's a long way from Lowell to Cambodia. When she stops at a black-and-white picture of her parents, San Ou seems to feel the distance.
A wisp of a thing at 5 feet, 100 pounds, it's hard to imagine Ou hovering on the knife's edge between life and death more than once -- and surviving. But the nightmares she has lived through have taught her something no one can take away from her.
"Life is a gift," she says.
After surviving genocide in her native Cambodia, Ou, 64, eventually settled in Lowell, where she again became a victim of abuse. This time, it was at the hands of a family member.
Last month, elder-abuse reports ...

(continue reading here) http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_12551611

www.elderrightsadvocates.com
Make a difference - email stopguardianshipabuse@gmail.com

Confronting Elder Abuse

Elder Abuse is a very serious crime and is recognized and punished as a third degree FELONY in Texas. A Felony is considered to be a crime of a grave and atrocious nature and is an offense punishable by death or imprisonment in the state penitentiary of Texas.
Even though my sister and I worked diligently to help our dad and our mom live out the lives which God intended, we never suspected that an abusing caregiver was working even more diligently to end our parent's lives. We were naive and trusting, believing that someone with the job of "caregiver" actually cared about her patients. We hope that by relating our experience, by telling others what we have learned, we may save some other parent, some other loved one from fear, abuse and an early death.
My sister and I believe that our dad was one of the greatest individuals of his generation. We will always love our wonderful father, and we will never forget that our dad died before his time.

(continue reading) http://www.iannarino.us/elderabuse.php