Protecting the elderly is gaining momentum
Silver Angels for the Elderly thanks all those who participated on Sept. 10 in our awareness rally on elder abuse, and the Coeur d’Alene Press for running an article on Sept. 11. Silver Angels is committed to helping seniors have a voice and a place to turn when they are abused and exploited.
We need you to help. We would like those who suspect abuse or are being abused, contact us on the website www.silverangelsfortheelderly.com with their anonymous tip. Our coalition is small but growing so our response will be swift by the end of October. We will look into the situation and try to assist.
Do you have a family member in a nursing home or assisted living facility? Check the medications that are being given or not given. Talk with other residents and caregivers and ask them if there are concerns or observations. Look at the file of the loved one and see if they have been asked to sign any powers of attorney, a new will or binding arbitration agreements. I was naïve in thinking that everyone had my mom’s best interests at heart. Mom had dementia so it IS hard to know what to believe if you are fortunate enough to have a loved one who can still talk. But you must ask questions and be vigilant!
The elderly don’t know where to turn. They are afraid of complaining because they fear being thrown out of the facility. Caregivers and nurses are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up too. My experience is that Idaho Facility Standards chose to put off investigating my complaint that my mother was being drugged and not being properly fed. It took the state 14 months to investigate, and when it did these public officials indeed found people still being drugged and physically restrained. But, there has been no notification to those families, police or adult protection. THIS IS WRONG! All the facility needs to do to satisfy the state’s request for correction is to respond within 10-30 days to Facility Standards and tell them how they intend to resolve the problem. To my knowledge, four months later, Facility Standards has yet to do anything to correct the terrible things going on at my mother’s assisted living facility.
The Silver Angels want a branch of Facility Standards in North Idaho. We can’t wait for the Boise machine to pick and choose where they go and who they deem worthy of help. We, as taxpayers, are paying for this agency to come to North Idaho once or twice a month, but we are getting nothing for our money. We also want better legislation to protect the elderly, with more options for the private sector to seek redress — especially when the State of Idaho refuses to act.
You may think the head of the ombudsman program in North Idaho would have helped me. But she didn’t. Instead, the cover up became more pronounced. There has yet to be any requests for more information on my Mom’s ordeal. Instead those in Facility Standards and the local head Ombudsman have repeatedly passed the buck and made ridiculous excuses for inaction — without input from me or from witnesses with direct knowledge of the abuse.
We encourage anyone who wants to help us change the status quo to visit our website. Please share your ideas. Kasem Cares foundation has partnered with us to seek justice for our elderly and has been successful in getting legislation passed in other states. We are in the process of bringing the police, attorneys, social workers, legislators, nurses, hospice and caregivers together to form a task force that responds quickly to any complaint. We will be presenting information to various groups in the future to help make families aware of elder abuse, which is now the most under-investigated and under-reported crime in America.
Diane Zell is a Hayden resident who helped start SAFE.