Home Health Aid Accused of Exploitation

A Minneapolis woman who provided home health care for a Rochester woman will make her first court appearance Monday after being accused of stealing jewelry and pawning it.

Danielle Marie Johnson, 30, was charged in September in Olmsted County District Court with financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult and theft, both felonies; and pawning the property of another, a misdemeanor.

The alleged victim, a quadriplegic, suffers from lung disease and mental health issues, according to court documents.

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Home Health Aid Accused of Exploitation, Theft From Rochester Woman

Woman in custody a year after arrest warrants issued for financial exploitation

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) – The fifth, and final, woman accused of stealing more than $260,000 from a Leland man’s checking account is finally in custody – nearly a year after arrest warrants were issued.

According to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office, Lisa McClain, of Fair Bluff, is in custody for several charges, including financial exploitation of an elderly person, felony conspiracy, and financial card theft.

Kenneth Ray Nash told authorities in October 2011 that someone had taken over his personal checking account, according to a post on the Sheriff’s Office website.

After a 10-month investigation by the fraud unit, over 1,600 bank transactions were used to identify an in-home health care worker who was assigned to work for Nash by a home health care company.
According to officials, McClain took cash, prescription pain medications and checking account information from Nash during her employment.

McClain also reportedly enlisted help from several friends in order to create a debt consolidation, or bill-pay service, using Nash’s funds.

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Woman in custody a year after arrest warrants issued for financial exploitation

Aging baby boomers face home health care challenge

CLEVELAND — For the past three years, Taura Tate’s mornings have revolved around caring for a woman who suffers from the effects of a stroke and diabetes. She cooks her oatmeal for breakfast, helps with showers and makes sure she takes the right medicine.

Without the help of a home health aide, the woman, who’s in her 70s, would be in a nursing home instead of living on her own.

But Tate has her own struggles. Until a recent promotion, her pay amounted to what she could make at McDonald’s. She doesn’t get health or retirement benefits and has worked at five agencies in the Cleveland area, some simultaneously, to guarantee she’ll have enough clients.

“If they go into the hospital or go on vacation, you don’t get paid,” she said.

Demand for home health care workers is soaring as baby boomers — the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 — get older and states try to save money by moving people out of more costly nursing homes. But filling more than 1 million new home care positions over the next decade will be a challenge.

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Aging baby boomers face home health care challenge

Third worker accused in swindle of woman, 99

A third home health worker has been arrested in connection with the alleged theft of more than $400,000 from a now 99-year-old woman.

Fort Lauderdale Police Thursday said that Tashua Edwards, 34, surrendered to authorities and was charged with grand theft on a person 65 or older and exploitation of the elderly.

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Third worker accused in swindle of woman, 99

Grannycam Captures Theft

An elderly man discovered his home health aide was stealing from him when his friend set up some “granny cams” to catch her in the act.

Carmen Vera, 42, was arrested and charged with theft.

The 73-year old victim said Vera, a home health aide employed by All About Care in Brick, had worked for him since December. Since then he noticed about $900 missing from both his armoire and wallet.

A close friend set up two secret cameras around the man’s bedroom to capture, in video form, any activity occurring in there.

Police said he had about 13 minutes of footage showing Vera “… clearly stealing.”

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‘Granny cams’ Capture Home Health Aide Stealing From Vineland Patient

Senator Al Franken Introduces "The Home Care Consumer Bill of Rights Act"

U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced a bill to protect Minnesota seniors who receive long-term services and supports in their homes and communities by guaranteeing them basic rights and protection from abuse and neglect.

Sen. Franken developed this legislation after hearing directly from Minnesota seniors and their advocates.

“It became very clear to me after meeting with seniors from Moorhead to Winona that remaining independent and at home is a top priority for our seniors,” said Franken. “But in order to keep our seniors in their homes we have to make sure they’re safe. This legislation would ensure that seniors who choose to receive long-term services and supports in their homes and communities have the same rights and protections from elder abuse that seniors living in nursing homes already have.”

The Home Care Consumer Bill of Rights Act would:

• Direct states to develop a Home Care Consumer Bill of Rights to protect seniors who receive services in their homes and communities;

• Establish a voluntary Home Care Ombudsman Program to support states that choose to provide ombudsman services to resolve the concerns and complaints of seniors who receive home and community-based services; and

• Develop quality standards for home and community-based services so that seniors and their families can make more informed decisions about who provides their services.

Sen. Franken plans to incorporate his bill into the Older Americans Act (OAA) when it comes up for reauthorization later this year. In an effort to prepare for the reauthorization — which Sen. Franken will play a key role in as a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee — he and his staff held listening sessions with seniors across the state, released a report on their findings, and held a Senate Special Committee on Aging Field Hearing in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

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Franken Introduces Senior Care Bill

>Violated: ‘Broken’ System Fails Elderly Abuse Victims

>Federal records show Minnesota has fallen short in its handling of complaints about abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults.

In the last year of her life, as her health faded at an Albert Lea, Minn., nursing home, Opal Sande became a target.

For months, the 89-year-old grandmother, blind and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was tormented by workers who abused her and 14 other residents. According to court documents and state records, workers pinched nipples, rubbed crotches and got in bed with some residents to simulate sex. They also spit in some residents’ mouths and covered their lips to prevent them from screaming.

Last month, a court-ordered arbitrator blamed the Good Samaritan home for failing to prevent what he called a “sordid, sad, shameful story” of abuse.

“I roll this over in my mind all the time,” said Sande’s daughter, Myrna Sorensen. “Why did I put her there? Why did they do that to her?”

The 2008 case is part of a broader problem across Minnesota, where 2,000 providers are entrusted to care for thousands of elderly and vulnerable adults.

In the past six years, according to records reviewed by the Star Tribune, state regulators have substantiated 273 cases of abuse and exploitation at nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and in-home care agencies.

In 381 other cases of suspected abuse and exploitation — including 96 reports of sexual abuse — the state was unable to prove that misconduct took place, even though regulators found some evidence of wrongdoing in almost two-thirds of those investigations, records show.

Federal officials have repeatedly faulted Minnesota for how it reviews complaints of abuse and neglect. Twice in the past four years, federal records show, state regulators did not properly investigate 40 percent of reported complaints.

“Something is broken,” said Deb Holtz, the state’s ombudsman for long-term care.

Holtz said there’s a “general sense of frustration” among advocates for the elderly that so many cases of reported abuse go unpunished.

In nursing homes and other care settings across the state, workers have harmed residents in a multitude of ways. They yelled at them and reduced them to tears with threats of punishment. Residents were slapped and punched, sometimes hard enough to cause bruising or bleeding. Workers stole checks, credit cards and jewelry. In at least 17 cases, victims were sexually abused.

State Health Department officials said they could have been more aggressive in some cases.

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Violated: ‘Broken” System Fails Elderly Abuse Victims

>Home Care’s Booming and so is Regulation

>As the first baby boomers turn 65 this year, entrepreneurs see opportunity. The number of companies providing home health care or services such as assistance in dressing, bathing, and cooking increased by more than 50 percent in the past decade, U.S. Census Bureau data show. Now regulators are scrambling to catch up with the growing industry.

Home-care companies aren’t regulated in about two dozen states, and just a handful require licenses for companies that provide nonmedical services. Today the industry faces a hodgepodge of inconsistent rules that advocates say puts vulnerable people at risk of financial exploitation or physical abuse. In states that require licensing, many operators ignore regulations because the costs of complying are high and the risk of getting caught is low, people in the industry say.

Advocates of home care say it is more compassionate and less expensive than nursing home care. More than 45,000 companies offered home health care or other aid in 2008, including 2,800 small outfits that pay franchisers for a brand name, training, and support, researcher Frandata estimates. They’re targeting a $55 billion market that will surely grow as the number of Americans 65 and older increases by 79 percent in the next 20 years, to 72 million, according to Census projections.

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Home Care’s Booming, and so is Regulation

>The New Business of Old Age

>The Times reports on the development of technologies that may help to keep aging Americans out of long-term care facilities.

Longevity-focused researchers…are betting that baby boomers, unlike generations past, will not go gentle into the good night of long-term care. In fact, a few research groups at institutions like Oregon Health & Science University, M.I.T. and Stanford, along with foundations and the private sector, are devising policies and systems for an alternate scenario: older adults living independently at home for longer periods, whether that home is a private residence or a senior community.

Devices for I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up catastrophes, they say, represent the old business of old age. The new business of old age involves technologies and services that promote wellness, mobility, autonomy and social connectivity. These include wireless pillboxes that transmit information about patients’ medication use, as well as new financial services, like “Second Acts” from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, that help people plan for longer lives and second careers.

Together, those kinds of products and services are already a multibillion-dollar market, industry analysts say. And if such innovations prove to promote health and independence, delaying entry into long-term care, the potential savings to the health care system could be even greater.

Source:
The New Business of Old Age

Laughing About Getting Old

With the timing of a professional comedian, this diminutive “little old lady” shines a very funny light on the foibles of aging, to the delight of an audience filled with senior-care experts.

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YouTube

See Also:
CaregiverStress.com

HomeInstead.com