Fraud Against Elderly Rises, Regulators Seek To Improve Reporting

Dec 2015 National:

Dealing with a rise in financial exploitation of the elderly, state officials are pressing for laws that require financial advisers to report suspected “elder fraud” to authorities, reports the Wall Street Journal. The mandate faces pushback from the financial industry, which says it could result in a massive number of reports that turn out to be false.

People over 60 were involved in 171,230 fraud complaints tracked by the Federal Trade Commission in 2014, more than double the number in 2010. Retirees are exercising greater control over their finances, given the decline in traditional pension plans. The complexity of managing and investing savings poses a challenge. The aging of the population, and a greater number of people with dementia, has opened up avenues for exploitation.

The fraud ranges from sweepstakes scams and bogus investment schemes to dishonest caregivers or family members skimming funds. Some investment advisers or stockbrokers churn accounts through unnecessary trades, resulting in high fees or losses. Elder financial abuse is expected to “grow dramatically,” says Rick Fleming of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Older Americans lost at least $2.9 billion to financial abuse in 2010, up 12 percent in two years, says Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. A coalition of state securities regulators has proposed a model state law that would require financial advisers to report suspected elder financial fraud to both a state securities regulator and an adult protective-services agency. ..Source.. by The Crime Report

Autistic Man in Jail for Talking to Some Kids

Dec 2011 Pennsylvania:

A Philadelphia area man with autism is being held on $100,000 bail for talking to some children.

The man, Daniel Lee, 26, of Wayne, PA, spoke to a group of three siblings, 8, 9 and 10 on Wednesday, asking them about their school and telling them he was on his way to a cabin in the woods. It’s unclear if he told the kids he wanted them to join him or not. (News accounts differ: See this and this.)

He walked off then found and talked to the kids again 20 minutes later near Wayne Elementary School, whereupon the children’s mom saw him and called the police. The police found the man in just two minutes.

Why so fast? My guess is because he was not a crafty creep trying to elude the authorities. He is a man with a disability that makes it hard for him to interact like a “normal” man around kids, which is apparently to never interact with them at all, but run in the opposite screaming, “Get away! I hate kids! I am not a predator!”

Now, WPVI “Action News” reports, Lee is in jail, “charged with Attempting to Lure Children into a structure, which is in reference to his statements about a cabin, corruption of the morals of a minor, and harassment.”

California considering a change in Education code related to Deaf Persons

10-4-15 California:

We are getting this from DeafInPrison blog, issues following Happy Birthday post:

Second, California is currently debating a change to their education code, that will create a protection for ASL as the official language of the Deaf and HOH. If this law passes, all students who have language problems in the English speaking world, will have ASL classes available to them. Likewise, Hearing students who want to go into Special Education, as well as ASL clubs and classes in mainstreamed schools, will be offered the opportunity to learn Sign. the following video was made by students in an ASL club in an unidentified California High School. If you’re interested in learning more, the name of the law is SB210, and here’s the .gov link: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB210

There is much more over there, so we suggest folks finish reading there CLICK

Is Amazon's ECHO's "Personal Assistant" for the elderly and disabled?

We now have one of these devices and are testing it to see how it can help folks. It works fine and can play some games as well. How to setup Echo

9-19-2015 National:

Is Amazon's ECHO a device for everyone? Probably not, but it does have features that would be mighty handy for the elderly and many disabled folks, and err couch potatoes, no names mentioned.

What is it? Effectively a "Personal Assistant" with "Plus Option/s" if you decide to use those features. Today's price on Amazon is CLICK. Reviews below sometimes mention different prices.

So a few Reviews, with different points of view. Oh just remember who we are suggesting this for, the elderly and disabled:

You should probably buy the Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo review

Amazon Echo, a.k.a. Alexa, Is a Personal Aide in Need of Schooling

How I learned to love Alexa (and Amazon's Echo)

Amazon Echo review: Betcha can’t buy just one of these voice-activated connected-home controllers

Here's what our readers think of the Amazon Echo

See other home voice activated personal assistants ...

Feds: No Medicaid Reimbursement For Prisoners At Rocky Hill Nursing Home

9-5-15 Connecticut:

ROCKY HILL — The nursing home at 60 West St. seemed to offer a solution to a vexing problem for the state of Connecticut: reducing burgeoning long-term care costs for sick and elderly prison inmates and mental patients.

State officials were confident Medicaid would pick up 50 percent of the cost of care if prison inmates were moved into a privately owned nursing home.

So far, that has not happened, and may never happen.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that administers Medicare and Medicaid, upheld a 2014 decision this summer denying Medicare/Medicaid certification to the nursing home.

The state is appealing but in the meantime, the determination leaves the state responsible for the full cost of the inmates' care.

The owner of the nursing home, SecureCare Options, receives $500 per patient, per day, a fee established at the time the patients were first admitted in May 2013, plus payment for services such as rehabilitation, that otherwise would be reimbursable.

As of Thursday, 58 patients were being cared for at 60 West St. All but three were placements by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services or Department of Correction, according to Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs for the state Office of Policy and Management.

Sex offenders at Clarinda institute taken off registry

2-2-15 Iowa:

Clarinda, Ia. – Four elderly sex offenders who live at the state mental health institute here have been taken off Iowa's public sex-offender registry, raising fears that state officials will quietly transfer the offenders to private nursing homes should the facility be closed.

Opponents of the planned hospital closure have been buzzing about the four offenders' rumored removal from the online registry. State officials confirmed the deletions Monday, but said the action was unrelated to the possible closure of the mental hospital.

Karin Hamilton, a Department of Public Safety administrator who oversees the registry, said her department has removed about 100 sex offenders' names from the public website in the past two months or so. The deletions were due to legal questions over who should be placed on the registry, she said.

The deleted names included the four sex offenders who are committed to a locked unit at the Clarinda mental hospital, she said. The review determined that "incarcerated" offenders need not be listed, she said.

That explanation doesn't wash with Becky Rassler, whose 95-year-old mother was molested repeatedly by one of the offenders now living at the Clarinda institution. William Cubbage, a four-time convicted sex offender, sexually abused Rassler's mother, Mercedes Gottschalk, at a Pomeroy nursing home in 2011.

Gottschalk's family didn't know that Cubbage and another sex offender were living in the nursing home. They only found out after an 8-year-old visitor to the facility reported seeing Cubbage molest Gottschalk and hearing the elderly woman cry out, "No! No! No!"

Ex-Clarinda patients sent to range of nursing homes

8-9-15 Iowa:

Karen Wininger keeps raising a fear to the staff at her new nursing home. Several times a day, she asks if she's going to be taken somewhere else.

The 75-year-old woman expresses her anxiety in a voice so soft it's barely audible. Davis Center staff members lean down to her wheelchair, sometimes putting their ears inches from her mouth when she speaks.

They reassure her, time and again, that she can stay.

The patient, who decades ago was a nurse, gives a wan smile to the staff. But her anxiety will bubble back up, and she'll ask again: Am I going to be taken away?

Until this spring, Wininger was one of 18 residents at a state program for elderly people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. The program was housed at the Iowa Mental Health Institute at Clarinda, which Gov. Terry Branstad ordered closed earlier this year, saying it was outdated and inefficient. More than half the residents were sent to private nursing homes.

Supporters of the Clarinda program said it cared for some of the frailest and most complicated psychiatric patients in the state. Wininger was one of two residents who wound up at the Davis Center, a well-rated nursing home that specializes in handling elderly people with mental illness.

Clarinda mental hospital patient dies after transfer

4-14-15 Iowa:

One of the first patients transferred out of the state mental hospital at Clarinda in preparation for its closure died less than three weeks later, his family confirmed Tuesday.

Richard Webb, 87, was a longtime resident of the institution, which is one of two that the state is shuttering. Critics say the swift closures could endanger vulnerable Iowans who have severe mental problems.

Webb had an advanced case of Alzheimer's disease, his family said. He was admitted to the Clarinda facility several years ago after private nursing homes determined he was too agitated to handle.

He was transferred to a Shenandoah nursing home March 25, and he died Sunday.

His daughter-in-law, Paula Webb of Kellerton, said he had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia, which might have recurred recently. When asked whether she believed his transfer hastened his death, she replied: "It's really hard to say." However, she said that as a retired nurse, she knows firsthand that moving to a new place can be especially stressful for frail, elderly people.

Deaf in Jail – Mistreatment of the Deaf

7-28-15 National:

Deaf people belong to one of the most vulnerable layers of society for obvious reasons. They cannot hear. Deaf people in jail are even more insecure. Some might say that if a person is in jail, this person deserves it and deserves the mistreatment, despite any physical disabilities like Deafness. Prison is a punishment already. God teaches us to forgive and to have mercy. Unfortunately, not many of us follow God`s commandments.

Quite often, Deaf people in prison get poor healthcare. A Deaf person can be easy to frame or wrongly accuse. For a Deaf person, it would be difficult to prove himself not guilty. Such a person may easily become bullied and it is very rare for them to be given any tools for easier communication.

Sex offender in legal limbo over residency

6-27-15 Pennsylvania:

LEWISBURG — Can a man’s parole be revoked if he’s never been out from behind bars? That’s the question in the case of Samuel Grove, a Lewisburg man and convicted sex offender who, despite being in a parole phase remains in jail — 13 years and counting — because he has nowhere to go.

It also points to the problem of after-jail housing for sex offenders, whose freedom relies on restrictions for where they can live and whose histories make them unwelcome just about everywhere.

On Friday in Union County Court, Judge Michael Sholley continued the case for Grove, 43, of Lewisburg, who was sentenced in 2003 four to eight years in prison for sexual assaulting four young men in Union County in 2002.

Grove was in court Friday for a parole revocation hearing, having been transferred last month to Union County Prison after he maxed out his time in the state system. Aside of three days of release after Grove served his eight-year maximum, he hasn’t been free.

Sex offenders being moved to Independence hospital

6-19-15 Iowa:

Four elderly sex offenders who live at the state mental hospital at Clarinda will soon be transferred to another state facility before the Clarinda hospital closes, a state spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

The Iowa Department of Human Services is winding down operations at the Mental Health Institutes at Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. The controversial closure plan was disclosed in January by Gov. Terry Branstad, who contends the two state hospitals' services could be provided more efficiently in private facilities or at the state's other two mental hospitals.

One of the biggest hurdles to the plan has been the question of what to do with the four convicted sex offenders in the Clarinda hospital's unit for elderly psychiatric patients. Initially, Department of Human Services officials suggested some of the four men might be moved into private facilities, such as a nursing home. But the department then said it wouldn't allow them to be placed into a regular nursing home unit with other residents.

Department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said Friday that the four will soon be moved to the state mental hospital at Independence. She said the department still is looking for future ways to handle other such residents in a specialized private facility.

Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009–2013 - Statistical Tables

5-21-15 Washington DC:

Presents estimates of nonfatal violent victimization (rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault) against persons age 12 or older with disabilities from 2009 to 2013. Tables compare the victimization of persons with and without disabilities living in noninstitutionalized households, including distributions by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, victims' types of disabilities, and other victim characteristics.

Tables also include information on victim–offender relationship, time of crime, reporting to police, and use of victim service agencies. Findings are based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) were used to generate victimization rates. ..Source.. by Erika Harrell, Ph.D

How Iowa case could change elders' sex rights

4-24-15 Iowa:

Iowa — A 78-year-old Iowa man's sex-abuse trial should prompt serious discussions about addressing the sexual needs of the elderly while preventing those most vulnerable from abuse, state and national experts said.

"You've got all this attention on this — so now is the time to make changes," said Gayle Doll, director of the Center on Aging at Kansas State University.

A jury on Wednesday acquitted Henry Rayhons, a retired farmer former state legislator, of sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with his wife after staff members at her nursing home in Garner, Iowa, warned him her Alzheimer's disease had left her unable to consent. He denied any wrongdoing. The unusual trial drew extensive national media coverage and debate.

Doll said the case highlights the need for care centers to set clear, specific policies on the subject, and to talk in detail with families about the issue.

Too many adult children still don't want to admit that their elderly parents have sexual desires and needs, even if short-term memory and other brain functions deteriorate, Doll said.

The Register's Editorial: Legislature again fails to protect elderly from violence, sexual abuse

Note mention of 2 incidents involving RSOs (over 4-years) and no mention of other incidents (ex: here) by other patients, offenders, staff or volunteers. Why?

4-14-15 Iowa:

More than four years ago, The Des Moines Register reported that dozens of sex offenders were living in nursing homes alongside elderly, vulnerable Iowans.

The newspaper's February 2011 report detailed 27 sex offenders living in 15 different state-licensed residential care facilities for the elderly and disabled. Several months later, convicted sex offender William Cubbage sexually assaulted 95-year-old Mercedes Gottschalk inside the Pomeroy care center where they lived. The Register then examined skilled-nursing facilities in Iowa and found 42 sex offenders living in 21 such homes.

The following summer, 35-year-old Matthew T. Braun, who had a well-documented history of violence, was admitted to the Prairie View Residential Care Facility in Fayette County.

Sex offender with Alzheimer's says he can't remember abuse, gets 2 years in jail

4-10-15 New York:

Fabius, NY -- A Cortland County man told authorities he can't remember sexually abusing two children a decade ago.

John Webb, 66, of 104 Pine Hills Trailer Park, Homer, was sentenced today to two years in jail for the abuse.

He was arrested Oct. 9, 2013 after a Fabius girl reported one of the incidents to school officials, who contacted Child Protective Services, according to Onondaga County sheriff's deputies. A second victim came forward later.

The abuse apparently happened a decade ago. Webb, who has advanced Alzheimer's Disease, told authorities he just didn't remember it, his lawyer, Robert Baska, said in court.

Appropriate Treatment For Deaf Sex Offenders

3-27-15 National:

Sexual predation is considered to be a heinous crime rather than a disease. In a paper written by Dr. McCay Vernon – the late psychologist who specialized in mental health issues and deaf persons – pedophilia is a “a curse,” because crimes by sexual molesters arouse so much public anger, and sex offenders often receive severe sentences by judges, juries and the public.

The curse extends beyond public outcry.

When a sex offender who is deaf, is sentenced to prison, the programs that prisons offer are often not accessible to them. Prison officials commonly – and wrongly – believe, that providing a sign language interpreter, thus an equivalency of the message will suffice. Not so. Many deaf sex offenders do not understand the psychological vocabulary that is used in these lectures. Further, they cannot read the materials.

Many Deaf adult criminal offenders are reading at the second grade level or below, have histories of physical, and emotional abuse, and may have cognitive disabilities as well. They are unable to grasp the concepts in these sessions, or learn how to process the stages in order to gain awareness of their disease. The textbooks, workbooks and other written materials are often written at the 7th grade or higher, so they cannot read the materials.

Private unit considered for mentally ill seniors

3-26-2015 Iowa:

The Iowa Health Care Association, which represents most of the state's nursing homes, has shown interest in helping set up a small private facility for senior citizens with mental illnesses that make them aggressive.

Although no such program has been formally proposed, the association recently sent the Iowa Department of Human Services an estimate of what it might cost.

The association figures that to start such a facility, a nursing home would need $300,000 for remodeling costs, plus about $422 per day for each resident. The per-day rate is less than half the $857 that state administrators say they're now spending on patients in a geriatric mental health program at the public institution at Clarinda, which is closing. But it is more than twice the $160 per day the state Medicaid program pays nursing homes on average to care for other elderly residents.

Dearden: Nursing care for hard-to-place Iowans

3-23-2015 Iowa:

Iowa's long-term care services receive high praise for quality and affordability. In fact, Iowa's long-term care services are ranked 13th best in the nation in the AARP's most recent Long-Term Care Scorecard.

However, Iowa has struggled to find appropriate nursing facility placements for sex offenders and those who are aggressive or violent, as well as older Iowans who require psychiatric services and nursing home care. Unfortunately, there have been cases in which staff and other residents have been harmed, and facilities have been fined for not providing adequate security when caring for these individuals.

Providing long-term care for sex offenders and those who are aggressive or violent is costly. It requires special training, security and insurance coverage.

The Legislature has attempted to research the issue, most recently in 2013 when a study committee was approved by the Legislature but vetoed by Gov. Terry Branstad. At the governor's direction, the departments of Corrections, Human Services and Inspections & Appeals created an informal work group that met over the past couple of years but produced no policy or funding recommendations.

Man convicted of 1979 kidnapping of 11-year-old girl dies

3-19-15 Iowa:

DES MOINES — A 79-year-old Iowa man convicted of kidnapping and sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl has died in prison.

The Iowa Corrections Department says Robert Padgett died Tuesday of natural causes stemming from dementia. He'd been housed at the Iowa State Penitentiary Hospice Care Unit.

Padgett was a convicted sex offender who'd been released from prison in April 1978 when he kidnapped the girl in 1979 from a dance studio in Fort Madison.

Police say Padgett took the girl to a motel in Coralville, held her captive there and sexually abused her for two days. He released her in Sigourney. ..Source.. by Iowa City Press-Citizen

New bill would remove sex offenders from group homes

Do all lawmakers have a brain the size of a pea? Here we see a bill supposedly to protect folks in group homes, there because of a physical or mental need, displacing folks who have the same need but are on a registry for a former sex offense many years ago. OK, now what do these pea brained lawmakers do with the folks their bill displaced? These are still citizens with a Americans with Disability Act need, who could use that Act to sue the state for discrimination.

3-17-15 New York:

It was a story that left a lot of people outraged. In one of our exclusive New York State Exposed segments, we told you about the state moving sex offenders into group homes right in the middle of neighborhoods.

Now, if passed, a new bill would ban sex offenders from being housed along with people with developmental disabilities; people lawmakers say are the most vulnerable in our society.

On Monday, we followed up with the Cades who live right near a group home on North Road. We checked. There is still a registered sex offender living there. The Cades feel some relief hearing about the senate bill, but they say they won’t rest until this bill becomes law, and they get some new neighbors.

“You never know, if you’re walking in your yard or on the street just going for a walk, who you’re going to run into,” said Beth Cade, lives next to group home.