Elderly Woman Gets Expensive Misery Courtesy Montco Adult Services — The social services promoted by the caring crowd are appearing more and more to be a money making scam, and a cruel one.
Jenny Reimenschneider has a horror story about the Montgomery County (Pa) Older Adult Protective Services.
It started about 2-and-a-half ago. Her mom, Elsie, then 84, had been living with her 59-year-old brother, JG. For years they were inseparable and Elsie took him everywhere, then lost an eye after botched cataract surgery by Wills Eye Hospital.
The brother had been recognized as disabled by Social Security since a teen, though he had a business degree and made many of Elsie’s appointments.
They lived in a condo in Mont Clare.
When Elsie could no longer drive, Jenny and her sister Sophia helped as they could but it was not enough.
Friends pitched in to take Elsie to appointments and meals but it was still not enough.
The brother asked the visiting doctor if they could get help. She brought the matter up to the county who turned it over to Adult Protective Services.
An agent visited the home and declared it to be an unfit environment.
Jenny concedes it was not perfect but Elsie had a constant companion and was content.
No matter. Montco assigned Elsie a lawyer she didn’t want. The lawyer began charging her $300 per hour, while ignoring her directions and wishes.
A guardian was assigned.
“Guardians are thought to be good things,” Jenny said. “You know like guardian angels.”
This one though was cold and cruel. She was also indifferent to the wishes of the mother.
She appeared to be in cahoots with the lawyer and it was from her she took directions, Jenny said.
A hearing was held.
The mom was ordered from her home and into Genesis Healthcare’s Manor Care of King of Prussia.
Her children’s visits were supervised. Jenny says Elsie cried at each one asking why they were keeping her there.
The children were forbidden from saying why.
The county began the steps to take her $200,000 home.
Here, though, is where the plot was foiled.
JG’s disability kept him from being evicted.
Three more hearings ensued. Jenny, Sophia and her other brother Jerald acquired joint custody of Elsie.
Still the county won’t let Elsie leave a “care” facility.
Why?
Imagine us rubbing our fingers together while pretending we have green paper between them.
The Reimenschneiders’ battle to get Elsie home continues. So far it has cost them about $15,000 in legal fees — which Jenny says pales compared to others fighting Montco — and the $10,000 apiece Elsie was forced to pay the county-appointed lawyer and the county-appointed guardian.
The county also paid the lawyer $10G and the lawyer continues to bill the county.
If it looks like corruption, swims like corruption and quacks like corruption, what else can it be?
And the horror stories of government “care” continue.
Thank you so much for writing this article, Bill. Your journalistic abilities are so appreciated by all of us in SEPA. I’m sending it to everyone I know.
Thank you so much, Olivia! My family and others affected by this fatally flawed system, appreciate your support.
Thank you for publishing this article. I will share widely. This is astonishingly routine across the country. There is a perverse$ incentive to push vulnerable people into guardianship by lawyers, courts and government agencies and begin billing! We have to continue exposing this and ending guardianship. The family expressed what they needed and wanted and were completely ignored and total strangers had the power to do this.
Very well said. As a retired Police Officer it appears even those who are labeled ” street people” were given more rights and consideration than your mother. But to point out “street people ” have no money to give and pay outrageous amounts of money to attorneys, nursing facilities etc. It appears your mother was not living in a great situation but definitely was living far better in a home with her son and companion than a “street person ” and yet the county took her rights away and forced her to pay from her own savings and forced her to do something she really did not want to do or need to do. To me her rights were violated. Also to not permit her to leave the facility to spend time with her family sounds like an imprisonment and not in her best interest as a guardian is suppose to represent. She was no threat to herself or others and if she was a street person this would not have happened but of course her money is involved that was forced upon her to pay every one involved. Talk about over reach of government..this is a case for that. This sure sounds like a violation of civil rights for sure.
Thank you for posting this. I know Jenny and Sophia very well, and they are two of the most ethical, caring, and hardworking people I know. I know JG less well, but my heart absolutely goes out to him, thinking that “help” might be real help, e.g. someone to come in part time to assist with care and cleaning. I think we all often forget that “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” really is a terrifying statement. I wish this weren’t the case, but it’s simply the truth.
We live in a soft fascism.
My deceased husband volunteered several years with groups such as Caseim Cares (idk spelling), CEAR, Dr Sugar (no longer active, Florida). This was after he investigated the corrupt (in his opinion) Area Agency on Aging/Office of Aging of our corrupt state, each county. That county funding is intermingled with federal funds. Chester Co. was a problem. A guardian fled Nevada to avoid arrest and was found in Chester Co. National news but idk her name. So it should be publicly known but it is a sad case of “buyer beware.” Whether family or court-appointed, guardians can reduce the assets, move the person 2-3 counties from the relative and our judges allow it. So he said. Theft is perfected in those who appear honorable. Imo. Linda’s comment is noteworthy: my husband sued to prove citizens do not (in theory) lose their rights upon being disabled! A doctor who declares a person “mentally incompetent” does great harm sometimes. But Americans usually do not value our elderly; only the wealth they cover.