Mandatory Reporting, Elderly/Parent Abuse Questions!!!

[lionfamily1999]

1. Are all medical and school personnel mandatory reporters?

 

2. Does this only apply to abuse of minors?

 

3. Who should be called in the following case?

 

Ms. X has drug problems. In order to feed them, she threatens her mother who is suffering through terminal cancers (three different types, including leukemia), at times abuses her, and then robs her of half of her pain medication. She also threatens, abuses, and robs her grandparents. Ms. X knows when both Mother X and her grandparents get their monthly stipend (Grandparents are retired, Mother X disabled) and she shows up that day to collect "her share." She also knows Mother X's scheduled appointment times and shows up to collect "her share" of Mother X's medication.

 

The medication that Mother X is on is very strong, her doctors give her very exact perscriptions, because the chances of an over dose are so great. Thus Mother X runs out of her pain medications well before her doctors are willing to renew her prescription. Mother X has told her doctors the situation and begged them to double her perscription and they refused. However, none of them have reported this situation.

 

Mother X has a live in nurse that cares for her. The nurse is aware of the situation, has seen Mother X cower, has seen the bruises and broken bones, but does not report on it. She needs the job too much.

 

Ms. X also has a daughter. Ms. X likes to show up at school at random times. The school has asked Ms. X to stay home, but they have not reported the situation. Ms. X was once asked to leave try-outs when it became apparent she was not wearing underwear. This was obvious when she squatted down on the side lines in her mini-skirt. Ms. X is a big girl and the skirt rode about her hips, leaving everything else in the breeze.

 

Concerned former friend of Ms. X has begged the police to intervene. At any given moment Ms. X could be arrested for being intoxicated in public, at most times a gentle shake would send a shower of illegally gotten perscriptions as well as street drugs from every pocket. The police say they need something more. Concerned friend of Mother X has begged social services to get involved. Social services need more than heresay, and point out that Ms. X, Mother X and Daughter X are all surrounded by mandatory reporters who have not reported anything.

 

Now what?

[Jean in Newcastle]

This is a link to a site that outlines Connecticutt's laws on elder abuse. I would look for something similar for the state in question.

 

http://www.infoline.org/InformationLibrary/Documents/Elder%20Abuse%20Laws%20and%20Mandated%20Reporting%20-%20Connecticut%20fj.asp

[lionfamily1999]

They send you back to Social Services.

[StephanieZ]

What a mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I would guess that a number of people are not doing their jobs. I would guess that state laws apply to these situations. I'd google "elder abuse" and your state name. . . and find the laws. . .

 

There may be a hotline for Elder Abuse -- try googling for one. You might call 911 and report the injuries and your observations. . . Repeatedly. . .

 

You might mail photos. . .

 

911 calls are recorded, so that might be a good way to go just to get it "on the books" so someone is less apt to shuffle it under the rug. . . Since you will have created a "trail" of proof that this was reported. . . so someone would look baaaddd if something tragic happened b/c it was not investigated properly.

 

Please help Mother X.

 

So sad!!!!!!!!!

[Jean in Newcastle]

http://www.dss.virginia.gov/pub/pdf/mandated_reporters.pdf

 

According to this list, medical personnel are mandatory reporters.

[StephanieZ]

VA's Adult Protective Services . . . (assuming Mother X lives in your state of VA)

 

http://www.dss.virginia.gov/family/as/aps.cgi

[Denisemomof4]

in our state we contacted the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

If you go into any nursing home, there should be a poster right there in the lobby about who to call about elder abuse.

 

How can people live with themselves? Since nobody else is stepping in to help this poor lady, please do all you can. It's very hard, I know. I was put in that predicament with a woman I cared for.

 

And the nurse? She needs the job so she allows her patient to be abused? She needs to be fired. There are agencies who can help this poor woman. Hospice is the one I'd recommend.

[lionfamily1999]

in our state we contacted the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

If you go into any nursing home, there should be a poster right there in the lobby about who to call about elder abuse.

 

How can people live with themselves? Since nobody else is stepping in to help this poor lady, please do all you can. It's very hard, I know. I was put in that predicament with a woman I cared for.

 

And the nurse? She needs the job so she allows her patient to be abused? She needs to be fired. There are agencies who can help this poor woman. Hospice is the one I'd recommend.

The nurse, Mom X's doctors, the teachers at the school, I just don't understand it! I think perhaps a flood of calls, repeat calls, constant calls to SS are going to start soon. Ms. X was already arrested once for breaking five of her mother's ribs. One of the cancers she suffers from is eating her bones and while the forensic whatever at the hospital said the bruises and breaks were indicative of abuse, Ms. X got off because her lawyer created reasonable doubt by going on and on and on about the cancer eating away her bones.

 

It makes me so angry and at the same time I feel utterly helpless. Short of getting involved with this family again, which I do not want to do, I can't report anything, because it's all heresay.

[lionfamily1999]

If someone were to complain to the school counselor on Daughter X's behalf, do you think the counselor would finally report Ms. X? There needs to be someone that's in authority reporting here, to lend credence to the claims of Mother X's friends.

[LauraGB]

Short of everything that has already been suggested, I just have to say that this whole story is so repulsive, it just makes me very angry and sick. Is Mother X not willing or able to press charges? Is she willing or able to go to a nursing home for her care?

 

I'll ask around and see what I can find to offer you by way of more suggestions.

[stormy weather]

When we knew someone very like Ms. X we went straight to the director of protective services and asked what steps to take to make it possible for them to get involved. They had the same kind of hearsay line, but told us how to go about getting them involved in the future. One of the things they told us to do was to get in contact with the county health department, which in our case had caseworkers for mental health and parenting help, when they got involved it seemed to include protective services. Keep at it, it sounds like Mother X and the rest of Ms. X's family need an advocate.

[elizabeth]

The nurse is aware of the situation, has seen Mother X cower, has seen the bruises and broken bones, but does not report on it. She needs the job too much.

 

That monster should have her license revoked. The whole point of mandatory reporting is the assumption is that licensed professionals are educated to be alert to the signs of abuse including but not limited to physical trauma, and they have a stake personally in doing the right thing or we lose our right to practice. The list in Iowa as to who are mandatory reporters is a mile long . Her MD should be alerted to this as they have ways of getting things done...I know I do. You know maybe the "nurse" needs to be told that it is being reported and she could be blamed for all the bruises, meds missing etc unless she tells the authorities the truth. There is always a way to get things done it just means getting dirty sometimes. KWIM? I say anything goes to save this poor soul from what is tantamount to torture.

[Anne in CA]

In many ways my dh's ex wife was like Ms.X after she got hooked on meth. Even now she does many illegal things, including stealing meds from her children and no dr has ever reported her. Even when she was high and accidentally stuck a lit cigarette in my step daughter's eye when sd was only 3 no hospital people cared to make a report. It took two years after that to get custody of sd because no one will file reports. Not just doctors, but people from Head Start were at her home numerous times when she was drunk or high and obviously not able to parent competently, but no one would make a report or agree to testify in court.

 

I could not go into the "accidents" her other children have had over the years that no one reports. Unless you make it your personal mission, Ms X will remain at large I'm afraid.

[CatMomof3]

This makes me so sick. I am sorry I have no advice but Mom X and you are in my prayers.

[cjbeach]

OH gosh yes. We had to report. Now it has been 10 years out but I think of the agencies I worked with, the preference was to get our in-house Social Services out there STAT and then THEY reported it as elder abuse. Ok, don't quote me because it's been almost a decade BUT I think first our social workers called the state's elder abuse hotline and filed a police report then investigations started. In one case (I came in AFTER the fact) there was round-the-clock care in an elderly woman's home after a neighbor bilked how out of large sums of money and the state pressed charges against the neighbors.

[kalanamak]

 

Now what?

 

Talk to the office manager at the docs office. Complain about the doc to the medical board of the state. Complain to elder services at the hospital whose cachement area she is in. Complain to the company that employs the nurse. If she is hired independently, complain to the state licensing board. Document all this and send on your concerns to muckymucks at your state department of social services. Try county health. Take pictures. Make secret tapes. Call cops every chance you get.

 

Get creative.

[Mynyel]

Get a nanny cam and put them in every room of the house. Then take that to the police.

[StartingOver]

I don't know about your state, but here we have a council on the aging. When nothing else can be done I have called them. When I worked in a local nursing home I saw a lot of abuse. I was so sick of nothing being done that I contacted my politicians. I also called the council on the aging. Along with law enforcement, we set up cameras. It was a huge mess, but I am glad I didn't stop screaming till someone listened !

 

The elderly to me are just like children, no one has a right to harm them !!!

[RoughCollie]

You could contact the professional boards which oversee the mandatory reporters and report them for not reporting the abuse.

 

Hopefully, that will cause the boards to investigate the situation.

[Chrystal]

Is the live-in a nurse, or just a nurse's aid. There is a difference.

Yes, all of these people are mandantory reporters, it doesn't matter what state you live in.

Call DHR. Report those that have not reported to the respective licensing boards. These people are being abused and what the person is doing is illegal and immoral.

[lionfamily1999]

I'm copy/pasting all this and emailing it to the one person I know that has the cajones to do something and first hand eye witness testimony. Unfortuneatly, Ms. X has filed charges against that person for assault in the past. The charges were dropped, but I think they can still be 'seen.'

 

Also, there will be a call to the school councelor of Miss X tomorrow. I'm not sure of protocal, but the hope is that an anonymous "tip" will lead the counselor to speak to Miss X about her family situation. I feel horrible that I keep "forgetting" her while worrying about her grandmother (Mother X).

Short of everything that has already been suggested, I just have to say that this whole story is so repulsive, it just makes me very angry and sick. Is Mother X not willing or able to press charges? Is she willing or able to go to a nursing home for her care?

 

I'll ask around and see what I can find to offer you by way of more suggestions.

She doesn't want to press charges. Ms. X is her only child and she doesn't want to leave this world on bad terms with her. Mother X has had "a few months left" for almost four years now.

 

Also Grandma X has cancer, it's terminal. Mother X does not want to leave her own mother and Grandpa X is doing what he can for his wife and daughter.

 

When we knew someone very like Ms. X we went straight to the director of protective services and asked what steps to take to make it possible for them to get involved. They had the same kind of hearsay line, but told us how to go about getting them involved in the future. One of the things they told us to do was to get in contact with the county health department, which in our case had caseworkers for mental health and parenting help, when they got involved it seemed to include protective services. Keep at it, it sounds like Mother X and the rest of Ms. X's family need an advocate.

Thank you.

The nurse is aware of the situation, has seen Mother X cower, has seen the bruises and broken bones, but does not report on it. She needs the job too much.

 

That monster should have her license revoked. The whole point of mandatory reporting is the assumption is that licensed professionals are educated to be alert to the signs of abuse including but not limited to physical trauma, and they have a stake personally in doing the right thing or we lose our right to practice. The list in Iowa as to who are mandatory reporters is a mile long . Her MD should be alerted to this as they have ways of getting things done...I know I do. You know maybe the "nurse" needs to be told that it is being reported and she could be blamed for all the bruises, meds missing etc unless she tells the authorities the truth. There is always a way to get things done it just means getting dirty sometimes. KWIM? I say anything goes to save this poor soul from what is tantamount to torture.

I agree completely. It's stunning to me that none of the "mandatory reporters" have filed a single report. I'm hoping that once the ball gets moving they'll be scrutinized. Mother X TOLD her doctors that her daughter was stealing her medicine. She asked them to double her perscription (so Ms. X could have her drugs, without leaving Mother X without any). It's incredible to me that no one has reported her.

Talk to the office manager at the docs office. Complain about the doc to the medical board of the state. Complain to elder services at the hospital whose cachement area she is in. Complain to the company that employs the nurse. If she is hired independently, complain to the state licensing board. Document all this and send on your concerns to muckymucks at your state department of social services. Try county health. Take pictures. Make secret tapes. Call cops every chance you get.

 

Get creative.

What a cachement area? The particular hospital is pretty notorious for screwing up, but I'll see about fattening their file.

Get a nanny cam and put them in every room of the house. Then take that to the police.

The grandparents refuse. Grandmother X has physical issues that she finds highly embarassing and refuses to do this, because she doesn't want those issues caught on tape.

You could contact the professional boards which oversee the mandatory reporters and report them for not reporting the abuse.

 

Hopefully, that will cause the boards to investigate the situation.

THIS is exactly what I was hoping for. It irritates me beyond belief that these people have all kept mum.

[Alphabetika]

Let me get this straight: This extremely ill and fragile woman's own daughter is breaking her mother's bones and stealing her pain medication? And a nurse won't report it even when she's seen the evidence? I am almost crying sitting here at the keyboard. This is so horrifying. Please do whatever you can to get Mother X to a safe place.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Alphabetika

[G5052]

Fax or mail a letter to the doctors involved with the elderly person with the details and say that you've decided to contact Adult Protectives Services. Then call Adult Protective Services and tell them that you've notified the doctors and provide every detail you can. You do this because everything will accelerate if there is medical reason for concern, otherwise you have little to go on according to the law. They can be cheated out of everything they have and emotionally abused to extremes, but unless the elderly person will testify and/or unless there's physical/medical abuse certified by a medical person, no case. I found Adult Protective Services to be very helpful and supportive in the case I dealt with, but they never did get enough evidence to do anything and it was finally a hospitalization as a result of the neglect that got the ball rolling.

 

And I'd call the police about the person stealing the medication and also tell them that you've contacted the doctor and Adult Protective Services.

 

:grouphug:

[Caraway]

Do you know the name of the doctors involved? If so, I would call them and tell them that if they don't report it immediately you are calling their licensing board and reporting them.

 

Taking prescription drugs from someone else is a federal crime. Could the pharmacy report?

 

Honestly, I would probably go sit in the police station until someone had had enough of me to prompt them to get it dealt with NOW.

[kalanamak]

I

 

What a cachement area? The particular hospital is pretty notorious for screwing up, but I'll see about fattening their file.

 

In a rural county, where there is only one hospital, that is it. In a city or populous county, the various hospitals divide up the area for mental/social health. All should have someone who deals with elder services. If Mother X is too young for that, Grandma X should be protectable. You/your friend can then establish you/his/herself as sane and "uninterested" (not after the dough yourself), and you might get someone ear that way.

[lionfamily1999]

Interesting turn of events. I'll have to be vague, but here goes.

 

Someone has an appointment today to renew perscriptions. Someone else is very punctual about picking her "share." Thank God for new cops, yet another someone wants to earn a little shine for their badge and has decided to listen :D I'll be changing some locks on some doors today and when someone else shows up at her usual time to pick up her "share" and can't get in there will be a full on s-fit. Shiny badge will be there. Let's just hope she's lit as usual.

 

Wouldn't it be great if this could be the end of the whole thing!!!

[kalanamak]

 

Wouldn't it be great if this could be the end of the whole thing!!!

 

Oh, yeah!

[Denisemomof4]

please update us!!! I do hope things work out as you expect.

 

I honestly don't know how some people can live with themselves.

[cjbeach]

Just to throw this into the mix... re: the nurse. Is the nurse hired through an agency? My first call would be to that agency. If there is a folder in the house find the number. If she's agency then there is paperwork that needs to be filled out for payment.

[Mejane]

You might also look into mandatory mental health services through your local agency. When I was a social worker in FL, there was something called the Baker Act which allowed police to forceably take someone in for mental health evaluation if they were deemed a threat to themselves or others. VA may have something similar. Good luck today.

 

Btw, that nurse should be reported immediately.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

In our community, our shelter would help her. Sadly, we have often helped protect elderly women from their abusive children. Help can go from actual housing to advocating for her with the police and social services.

[stormy weather]

Praying today will start the ball rolling for protective services to get invovled for all her family's sake.

[Alphabetika]

Interesting turn of events. I'll have to be vague, but here goes.

 

Someone has an appointment today to renew perscriptions. Someone else is very punctual about picking her "share." Thank God for new cops, yet another someone wants to earn a little shine for their badge and has decided to listen :D I'll be changing some locks on some doors today and when someone else shows up at her usual time to pick up her "share" and can't get in there will be a full on s-fit. Shiny badge will be there. Let's just hope she's lit as usual.

 

Wouldn't it be great if this could be the end of the whole thing!!!

 

Please, please update us. This post has been haunting me since I read it. If I lived near you, I'd want to shelter this woman myself.

[lionfamily1999]

My mom took over her care for some time. Things were getting better, she was getting her pain medication via drip, her daughter couldn't steal from an IV.

 

This time last week her father told my mother that she was no longer allowed to speak to them or come to their home. He said his granddaughter (ya know, the druggie) would handle taking her mother to her appointments. She had one appointment every single day last week and she missed every single one of them.

 

Friday she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, the paramedic called my mother. My sister went to the hospital and I cannot even share her description, it's too disturbing. No one was there for her. My youngest's birthday was Saturday and so our family was busy. No one was at the hospital with her, again my sister visited.

 

She died this morning at 2am. Thank God she's past all this. In the mean time, Social Services, the police and all the king's horses and all the king's men are neck deep in that hell hole. Here's to peace and justice.

 

:crying:

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am so sorry, Julie. Sometimes a person's family are their worst enemies. . . (The one bright side in all of this, if you can think of it as really a bright side, is that the druggie granddaughter is finally cut off from that source of drugs.)

[LittleIzumi]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

[Denisemomof4]

I'm so desperately sorry for the woman who had to live like this. I'm so sad that she had such a crappy daughter. Druggie or not, she was a BAD DAUGHTER.

 

I am glad that her hell is over. I truly am. I don't say this lightly. That POOR woman.

 

I am so sorry that you and your sister will have to live with this for the rest of your life. I have to live with what I silently witnessed as a LNA while in high school and it was not easy. It's just hard to understand how anyone can be so cruel to a human. Or to ANY living being.

[Joanne]

Wow. Just wow. :grouphug::grouphug:

[Whereneverever]

:grouphug: I'm so sorry that this happened.

[bbsweetpea]

I am so sorry for the loss. It breaks my heart to read this whole thread.

[idnib]

Wow, what a story. And yet I bet it's more common than I'd like to believe.

 

May she rest in peace.

 

Some drugs can do such terrible things to people and make them into monsters.

 

I was going to suggest contacting your congressional representative for help. I know it's too late now, but I'll add it anyway in case someone searches for an elder abuse thread later.

 

:sad:

[Alyce]

We had a similar case with my Dad. Our nephew was living with him and was taking money from him by lying. We turned to Social Services and they talked to Dad but he said he knew what was going on. Since Dad knew what was going on and wasn't willing to stop it Social Services said they could do nothing. Unless the person is willing to admit to abuse or willing to press charges they won't do anything. We finally had to go to a lawyer and get power of attorney. We were able to show that Dad's mental state had decreased and he wasn't handling his funds properly. After we got the power of attorney our nephew moved out the next day. If you go that route you can take care of all your mom's bills and paperwork and there won't be anything for the other person to steal and if he tries YOU then have grounds to file a theft report on him. It's a hard way to go but we had no choice as the situation was only getting worse and no one could help because Dad kept saying everything was fine.