If there was a contest for "Worst Place For (Gay)Elderly to Live," Sonoma County, California would have to be on the short list, based on what they did to two elderly gay gentlemen, Clay Greene and Harold Scull, pictured here in happier times. Clay Greene was living in his home in Sonoma County, with his partner of 20 years, Harold Scull. Harold, then 88 years old, fell and was hospitalized. What happened then is every elder person’s – and gay person’s – worse nightmare. The County sprung into action, removing Clay from his home, and sending Clay and Harold, against their will, to separate nursing homes.

Although Clay and Harold had wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other as their responsible persons, the County even obtained court orders preventing Clay and Harold from seeing each other. The County sold their belongings at auction, and as reported by Scott James of the New York Times, removed the men’s cats from their home, right in front of Clay Green. Clay is still haunted by the scene. “When Clay M. Greene remembered the events of June 2008, he clenched his teeth, his hands tightened into fists and his body shook. They grabbed them by their necks and tossed them in a car,’ he said last week, recalling the fate of his beloved cats, Sassy and Tiger. He never saw them again.” Harold died in the nursing home, a few months later. With the assistance of a court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis, of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home

According to Kay Kendall of the Bilerico Project, all Clay has left from his life together with Harold is a photograph. The rest was destroyed by the County.

Clay Greene has decided to strike back against this despicable and egregious conduct, and is suing Sonoma County for violation of his civil rights – as an elder and as a gay man – in a lawsuit that will go to trial in July. Clay is from a generation that was forced to live their lives behind closed doors, so he does not use the term “gay” to describe himself, or the term “same sex partner” to describe his relationship with Harold. By standing up for himself, though, he will vindicate the rights of senior citizens in general and gay senior citizens in particular who live in fear that the same thing could happen to themselves.

To read the New York Times article about Clay Greene, click here. To read Kay Kendall’s article in Bilerico, click here.

You can learn more about the lawsuit, by visiting a Facebook page set up by Clay's supporters: www.facebook.com/JusticeForClay?v=app_2347471856

Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

If you have an elderly parent or grandparent you should take time now to familiarize yourself with the causes of aspiration and its signs and symptoms. When a patient aspirates, food, drink or even saliva that should be channeled from the mouth into the stomach instead gets channeled into the lungs, causing a pneumonia in the lungs. Aspiration is usually, but not always, a life threatening situation, compromising the person’s ability to breathe on their own.

When my Dad landed in the hospital in 2002, after having a fall at home and breaking his hip, I had heard of aspiration, but that was the furthest thing from my mind. After all, how could a broken bone lead to aspiration? My Dad was aging amazingly well – he was mentally and physically intact, sharp as a tact, with normal blood pressure and no health troubles other than a bad back. My main concern was that the hip surgery go well, which it did. Without a hitch in fact.

The night before he was to be discharged from the hospital, I visited him at night after work. We were looking forward to the next day, when he would be discharged to a rehab center for physical therapy, and after that, to go home. He had already eaten dinner when I arrived at 8 pm. He had told me that earlier that day he had become confused and thought that the furniture was flying around the hospital room, and realized that it must be the pain medication. I noticed that he was wheezing off and on -- something he had never done before. Dad said that the wheezing had started just before I arrived. I asked the nurse what that meant, and she said that he “might just have a little congestion.” I asked her to ask the doctor about it and get back to me. Other than the intermittent wheezing, Dad seemed fine, so I left at 11 pm without having heard back from the doctor.

The hospital called me at 2 a.m. and said that my Dad was transferred to the ICU. I rushed to the hospital and was told that he had aspiration pneumonia -– most likely caused by aspirating his dinner the night before. That’s what that wheezing meant. When I spoke to Dad’s doctor, he said that most likely the pain medication Dad was on for the hip fracture (the Oxycontin and Vicodin) interfered with his swallow mechanism, causing the food Dad ate at dinner to go down his windpipe instead of into his stomach.

My Dad never regained consciousness, and within 48 hours he was dead from complications of the aspiration.

There are many other unlikely causes of aspiration. For example, patients who became malnourished are at risk of aspirating. Safe swallowing depends on working swallowing muscles, and drastic weight loss diminishes the swallowing muscles’ ability to function properly. A malnourished elderly patient can be at risk for aspirating simply because their swallow muscle has atrophied due to malnutrition. Because malnutrition is so prevalent in nursing home residents (for many reasons, most of which are preventable), that's one reason why nursing home residents are vulnerable to aspirating in a nursing home.

The New York Times New Old Age Blog has just posted an article on swallowing disorders, When The Meal Won't Go Down. It is an excellent introduction to swallowing issues in the elderly and will refer you to other resources on the web, such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website.

Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

Do you have a veteran in your family? The Veterans Administration has many programs that might help your family, including the seniors in your family. You should read an article the AARP has posted, called Giving Back to Vets, that describes the veteran benefits available.

Click here to read the article.

Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

Reporter Christina Jewett of California Watch has posted another article,"Why Is State Only Collecting One Third of Nursing Home Fines?" Jewett (pictured to the right) analyzed data from the State that shows that the California Department of Public Health -- the agency that licenses and has oversight over California nursing homes -- is letting nursing homes avoid or delay payment of fines imposed for breaking state law. Fines are the price the nursing home must pay for violating the law -- hence no fine, no penalty.

Jewett connects the trend in decreased collection of fines (In 2005 the state collected 60% of fines against nursing homes but by 2008 they only collected 30% of the fines) to a 2004 change in the law (AB 1629) which lets the nursing homes hire lawyers to fight the fines and bill the State for the cost of their legal fees. The nursing home can delay paying the fine by filing a legal challenge and if they lose, bill the State for the cost of their legal fees. The 2004 thus gave nursing homes an incentive to challenge and delay payment.

To locate and contact your State Senator and State Assemblyperson, and demand a change, click here.

To read Jewett's article, click here.


Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

How would you feel if you went to visit your elderly parents at a rest home, and found an eviction notice posted on the door, stating that the home was going to be sold at auction or that the home residents were being evicted? Suppose further that this was the first notice you had that the rest home was in financial trouble, and that your parents might have just a few days, or less, to find a new home?

According to a recent New York Times article, When Foreclosure Threatens Elder Care Homes, that is the situation that Brenda Wing, pictured here, found herself in when she went to visit her 84-year-old father in the Northstar Manor care home in Woodland, here in Northern California. Records show that the home was in foreclosure but the homes owners gave their elderly residents no warning that eviction could be imminent, and they even lied to Brenda Wing when she asked them about it, telling her that there was nothing to worry about, and when she persisted, that it was none of her business.

How big of a problem is this? The New York Times analysis shows that here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are 1,600 board and care homes -- small residential care homes for elderly who need simple “custodial” care or assistance with activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, dressing and grooming – and that 16 percent of them have been in some stage of foreclosure since June 2006. That includes more than 100 homes under foreclosure in the last six months, with as many as 700 elderly residents affected.

Board and care home owners are taking advantage of a gap in California law, which lets them keep their elderly residents in the dark as to the care home’s financial troubles, even when foreclosure of the care home or eviction from the home is imminent. The board and care home owners involved would rather hide the foreclosure than take the chance that their elderly residents would move before the property was sold.


Anthony Chicotel, a Staff Attorney with advocacy group California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), who is working on changing the law, is quoted by the Times as pointing out that the elderly can be evicted “without any notice, without preparation, without any arrangements for an alternative residence. Not only are they losing their home, but they are losing the services that allow them to live.” To rectify that, CANHR has asked State Senator Mark Leno, to introduce legislation that would require care home owners to notify the licensing authority, and the elderly residents and their families, within 24 hours of notification of foreclosure, bankruptcy, missing a mortgage payment or the prospect of a utility cutoff. The proposed law would also fine owners who failed to do so $100 a day, and permanently disqualify them from operating elder-care homes in California.

The bill won’t be voted on until June. California Governor Schwarzenegger may need a push to sign this legislature, assuming it passes the California legislature. Click here to email him to support the change in the law and protect the elderly from unexpected foreclosures.

What can you do to protect yourself from this type of situation or if you are in this type of situation?

1. Check the property address on a real estate website
such as www.zillow.com, which may list whether they
are current on their mortgage, whether the
property is in foreclosure or preforeclosure.

2. Ask the owner of the board and care if they are
behind on their mortagage, in pre-foreclosure or
foreclosure, whether they are any plans for the
property to change hands in the next year, and
whether they are having any financial
difficulties. Bring someone with you as a witness
so it won't be just your word against theirs.

3. Get the owner's commitment to inform you of any
difficulties that could force the sale of the
property, as soon as they materialize.

4. If you learn of foreclosure, contact the bank
(the name will be posted on the eviction
notice)directly and try to negotiate a delay
of the sale until you can relocate.

5. Consult a lawyer and call the state licensing
office, the Department of Social Services
Community Care licensing. Their website is
www.ccld.ca.gov.


Click here to read the Times article.

Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com