Read this if you have aging parents, or know anyone elderly, especially in California...

[senoritafish]

First of all, please go to the L.A. Times and read this:

GUARDIANS FOR PROFIT
When a Family Matter Turns Into a Business
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conserve13nov13,0,2846858.story

Much of this is reprinted from a post I made in June. I'm reluctant for this page to show up in a google search since this is a public post - therefore, I will refer to the conservator mentioned in the article as Ms. MS. My best friend's mother passed away in May. Elizabeth Fairbanks was almost the same age as my father; I mostly remember her as a nervous, chain-smoking woman, who often phoned several times before Beth arrived when she came to visit me, worrying something had happened to her on the drive between Beaumont and Huntington Beach. My first words to Beth as she walked in the door were often, "Phone your mother." - Beth has had cell phone service the longest of anyone I know - her mother insisted she get one as soon as they became affordable to mount in your car (before you could carry them around in your pocket). Ms. Fairbanks has suffered from dementia for the last five years or so, and has been in a nursing home since she was diagnosed.

Nevertheless, Beth loved her mom very much, visited her regularly, and she and her brother regularly took her out to dinner on holidays and such. Unfortunately, Beth and her brother were unable to oversee their mother's care; at the time she was diagnosed, Beth was having severe issues of her own, and her brother was similarly unable to, not to mention living several hours drive away at the time. She was put in the care of a conservator, someone who was supposed to manage her finances and make decisions for her. The largest business in the San Bernadino area is the one owned the woman mentioned in the article, whom Beth's family was put in touch with through her doctor.

The weekend before she died, she came down with the flu, which turned into pneumonia. The conservator, Ms. MS, told the nursing home that she had a "no heroic measures" living will on file with her, so she was never taken to the hospital - she remained in the nursing home, and she was only given some oral antibiotics, which did very little. When talking to the conservator as her mother lay dying, Beth's answer to her was, "That's very interesting, since you never met her until after her dementia diagnosis," and these things have to be filed by people of sound mind, don't they? In previous conversations with her mother, she had told Beth that she wanted to "fight like hell" and stay around as long as possible. This is the final item on a laundry list of complaints:

• Beth feels her family was not notified that her mother was even ill until it was too late - only a few days before she was arguing with Ms. MS about buying her mother clothes - they were always too expensive, her mother hated them, and what she really needed was new glasses. They were not told she was ill until they were told they needed to come see her because she wasn't going to last much longer.
  
  
• After her mother entered the nursing home, her house was rented for awhile, then sold, ostensibly to pay for her care, but the money seems to have petered away much sooner than it should have; The family still has never gotten an accounting of how her mother's money was spent after several years.
  
  
• There was no inventory of items in the house, which Beth demanded on numerous occasions and never received; when she finally got access to her mother's storage locker, she noticed much of her mother's antique furniture had just been thrown in helter-skelter, with heavy items piled on top of fragile, other pieces damaged that she knew weren't while they were still in her mother's home, and quite a few very important/valuable items missing. Just as a coincidence, she discovered the conservator's sister (or sister-in-law, the same one mentioned in the article, who lived rent free at another client's house for several months while "painting" it) owns an antiques stores in one of the other desert cities.
  
  
• Her mother suffered a fall in her room at the nursing home and badly banged up her face, Ms. MS (or her staff) did not make a doctor appointment for her until four days later, after Beth visited her and was outraged at her condition. She was told by the staff that she couldn't take pictures (what?! You can't take pictures of your own mother?!); she snuck some anyway, and when her family doctor saw them, was appalled that her mother hadn't immediately been taken to the ER. The pictures may have looked more gruesome than the injuries actually were, but she should have at least been checked. When Beth obtained paperwork concerning this injury, they were dated before the accident even happened.

...among many other things. Beth is terribly angry and would like to take her court, but neither she nor her brother have the finances for court costs, so she is trying to contact other families who feel this woman ripped off their elderly relatives. She called the office the day her mother died, and told the conservator's assistant she was holding the conservator responsible, and she would do all she could to stop her; she now feels that may have been a mistake.

I just find it amazing that this industry has no licensing, regulation or oversight. All you have to do is pay a $385 registration fee and have a background check, and you're in business. There are hearings coming up to require licensing and Beth is planning on testifying at them. As the article says, I'm sure there are conservators who do a wonderful job and their clients and their families love them; however, I find it interesting that in all the comments on the article, the only ones in defense of this particular conservator come from inside the industry. I see none from any client's family members who feel she took wonderful care of their relative, and several who feel she took advantage of them. There is even a comment from a former employee, who states she was let go; in hindsight, probably because of her statements to the nature of "my, look how fast these senior's money is bleeding away," and that in meetings, the conservator was always aggressively hounding her staff on billing for every little thing; apparently, it's not uncommon for conservators to send flowers, gifts, etc on a client's birthday or even a funeral and then bill for the item and time spent purchasing it (although I don't know if this person actually did that).

Dementia must be a terrible thing, especially if you have lucid moments here and there, and no memory of what goes on most of the time. And I can see some people saying the elderly die of pneumonia all the time. However, if her illness was treatable, and she asked for further treatment (nursing home staff took Beth aside and whispered that the way it happened was not what her mother wanted), it seems like something more should have been done. She wasn't bedridden, and appeared to be happy enough, even if she couldn't remember who you were.

Helen Jones was lucky - a step grandson contacted her and started court proceedings to get the conservatorship away from Ms. MS. After a lengthy and expensive court battle, she is now under his care, and her conservator is considering filing criminal charges.

On Friday, October 13, the final hearing concerning Elizabeth Fairbanks estate is to be at the San Bernadino County courthouse at 10:45 a.m (map and directions). Ms. MS is expected to testify that nothing is left of it. Beth is giving testimony as to her experiences with Ms. MS, and has contacted many of the families who commented on the L.A. Times article. Helen Jones is also attending and we would like as many people as possible to gather out in front of the courthouse at least an hour earlier than that. If there enough people, ABC News will also be there. Beth's family will be making signs. If you have Friday free, and can make it out to San Bernadino, we'd appreciate your support.

Ms. MS portrays herself as a champion of seniors who can no longer care for themselves, has even been featured in AARP magazine as "The Lifesaver," and is a member of various committees on ethics and promoting licensing and reform for her field. She donates to numerous charities, has recently sold property to Loma Linda University for 2.5 million, and for some reason it seems to very difficult to get anywhere in the Inland Empire legal system with her (the hearsay is lawyers and judges are afraid of her). Nevertheless, there seem to be an awful lot of people who've had bad experiences with her. There has been no follow-up since the Times article, which was published last fall (other than Helen Jones case), and we want Ms. MS to know there are people prepared to fight her.

Further reading:

Another person who's had trouble with her:
http://www.discussanything.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1187896

More on Helen Jones:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conservator3dec03,1,7110301.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenews
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jones31mar31,1,1605023.story?coll=la-story-footer

While this person seems to have some serious issues of her own going on, her story about what went on with her parent sounds familiar: http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/862403.shtml

Comments

[dipster.livejournal.com]

I know where that courthouse is. Unfortunately, my absence at work is pretty noticable. :(

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Thanks for even considering it. I only can because my boss is pretty flexible, and I need to take more vacation time off before the end of the year (I'm over the limit).

[dipster.livejournal.com]

Over the limit?? That's not good. :-p