Avoiding Injustices and Abuses of Seniors

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By: Posted: Nov 30 1999 12:00:00 AM

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By: D Posted: Nov 30 1999 12:00:00 AM

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By: S Posted: Nov 30 1999 12:00:00 AM

How to make a complaint about ill treatment of nursing home patients Reply to this Comment

I need help on contacting the right people or person to make a complaint on a nurse with a horrible attitude in the presence of family members towards a patient. Who turned to the family and asked if she wanted to fight with her sooo unprofessional. She really shouldn't be in the field of working with the public especially the sick and elderly. Someone please help us to reach the right people or person. Thank you A granddaughter

By: Cathy Posted: Jun 06 2006 07:07:24 AM

Help ! Bessie, 94, homeless and harrassed by SFPD Reply to this Comment

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Bessie/ For your urgent consideration: Please call Bessie's son Larry at (415) 368-2261 or Idriss Stelley Foundation at (415) 595-8251 You can watch "In my declining years", video realized by PamPam Gaddies, Director of SF Peacemakers, Conscious Eyes, interview of Mama Bessie, at http://www.current.tv/studio/media/13670557? Also another video from Deb Tullmann : http://www.current.tv/watch/13670557.htm (indymedia, KPOO and KPFA are also preparing interviews of Bessie) Have you ever heard of Bessie Berger, 94 yr. homeless woman in a wheelchair for the past 4 months in SF ? Incredible? Please read on, and kindly let us know if you are concerned for Mama Bessie and her attending sons. They will not be separated. Join Justice4Bessie ! In Struggle &Solidarity, Peace in DA Hood &Beyond meshá meshá Mongé-Irizarry Idriss Stelley Foundation ISF, director iolmisha@cs.com 24 HR Crisis Line (415) 595-8251 http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/ www.myspace.com/isfoundation The story of "Mama BESSIE", Rocking San Francisco ! ________________________________________________________________ SF Hall of Shame: Will Mayor Newsom ever care about the Disabled & Seniors? "My name is Bessie, I am 94 yr. old and STILL homeless" Managed Mayhem: SFPD Alliance with displacement of the Poor, Black and Brown... Only in San Francisco Bayview? Think again... (by meshá Mongé-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley Foundation) Last month, a group of SF community activists met at the New Progressive Center in SF Excelsior District, preparing for the 11th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and "Criminalization of a Generation" , which in everybody's consciousness is referring to our Youth... We were in for a huge, nasty surprise...As the story unfolds, endless tragedies, repeated assaults on civil liberties, lies, deception and criminalization, I feel compelled to tell the story of "Mama Bessie" to the World... Two scruffy, boisterous, weathered white men walk in, pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair: their Mom Bessie Berger , 94, deaf, her legs painfully, horribly swollen with severe cellulitis. As we go around for check in, they introduced themselves: "I'm Larry Wilkerson, Bessie's son"... "And I am Charlie, her older son, we take care of her"..."I'm Bessie , I'm 94 years old. And STILL homeless, the police has been harassing me, please help us!". As everyone gasps, Bessie, obviously well cared for, neatly dressed, flashes a bright smile, a twinkle in her luminous blue eyes: "We are not going to give up!". The notorious Hell Angels adopted Bessie in Palm Spring and call her "Mama"! She is related to Edgar Allen Poe, and Navy Rear Admiral Allen Schley in the 1800's... Larry, 57, Charlie, 59, and Mama Bessie drove to San Francisco 4 months ago, after being evicted from their Palm Spring apartment (an unscrupulous building attendant pocketed their move-in fee and rent money, never turned it in to the building management...). Ever since, they have been sleeping sitting up in their 84 Chevy Caprice beat up 2-door coupé, that has 1,660,500 miles on its odometer, (if the car breaks down, it will be towed during street cleaning and the family will have lost all their possessions and only shelter). They first parked behind San Martin De Porres "soup kitchen" on Potrero Avenue, but were chased out by Mission PD, banging their night sticks above Bessie on the car's roof. This eventually lead them to seek shelter at CATS at 39 Fell Street, who refused to take them in, alleging that since the facility was not coed, Bessie would have to stay by herself somewhere else: "It is not my problem" stated CATS manager, "You can't stay here, good bye". Besides sleeping in their car, after applying for HUD housing (6- month waiting list), the family has been placed a couple of times at the drug infested, infamous Columbian Hotel... Roaches were crawling on Bessie and her sons and sleep was not an option. They then parked in the Richmond District by the ocean, spending their morning at the SF Coalition on Homelessness in the Tenderloin District, and renting a motel room for a day once a month (all they can afford) to give Bessie a bath and finally enjoy a restful night. The SF Commission on Aging has been giving them the runaround, suggesting that Bessie part from her children who are her trusted, loving attendants, and be placed into a hospice, which would surely plunge Bessie into deep depression and an early death. Hospice would eat up all her income, leaving her with $50 a month..."Stick your Mom in a home and you can go visit her"... Bessie, very astute and thinking with a sharp mind, adamantly refuses this tragic option. As Larry puts it, yelling in Bessie's good ear: "Mom! I told them you can't hear but you are not demented or senile!". Again, that beautiful, mischievous bright smile... With a combined income of $1620, the family is not eligible for decent medical insurance (Medicare does not cover most of Bessie's meds, including Prozac which costs $147 a month to relieve her very painful cellulitis). Larry lives in chronic pain, displays early symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy, and is loosing eyesight due to a piece of glass lodged in his left eye socket, since an assault on his person when he was bartending. Charlie suffers from degenerative arthritis, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, disabling migraines and arrhythmia due to the use of Vioxx for pain control, and also loosing eyesight. You can surely imagine that sleeping in a cold, rusty car, rain sipping in through the roof, does wonders for their health... Does Mayor Newsom care about the Disabled and Seniors in gentrifying San Francisco? His predecessor, "DA Mayor" Willie Brown, not only consistently refused to meet Mama Bessie, but had her forcefully "removed" from City Hall by the Sheriff... If this family had a place to stay, Bessie's sons could be her attendants at minimal wage through General Assistance, and would be able to receive Food Stamps, not a current option for the homeless. Who could ever take better care of Mama than her loving sons? Bessie has 47 grandchildren, scattered all over the country. The family is sadly plagued with drug addiction, but brothers Larry and Charlie are, long standingly, clean and sober, which organically prompted them to take care of their Mom. Raymond, Bessie's oldest child, is dying, hit heads on by a semi truck... Her great grandchild Tyler James, 8 yr., was killed by drunk driver Mark Shifflet, a crack addict, in February 2001, who hit TJ at 70 miles per hour, threw him 120 feet up and skid on 96 feet on Highway 175. Lake County CHP did not do a tox screen and let the killer go! Shifflet had 2 previous and 2 subsequent DUI's... But No Proof=No Case...Mothers Against Drunk Drivers turned them down for services, since there was not an open investigation. A Lake County judge deemed the family's claim for justice "a frivolous law suit", and blamed TJ for his own death, "too far out in the road". Charlie says: "TJ was a sweet, wonderful boy: he had just donated his own toys to the Fire Department for poor kids! This hurts us so bad, Mom will never get over this..." Larry, Charlie and Bessie have been constantly harassed and criminalized by SFPD . Charlie had been sitting on Haight Street, trying to sell trinkets to survive, when a "baldheaded white cop" yelled at him: "You can't sit here, you are NOT allowed to make a living this way. NO, you are not! If you sit out here I will give you a ticket and confiscate your stuff!". On another occasion,while Charlie was selling comic books on the street, an officer ordered him: "Get these damn books up, you do not have a vendor's permit, or I will take them and give you a $75 ticket!" Bessie insists on carrying a sign in her wheelchair and on the back window of their car: " My name is Bessie, I am 94 years old and STILL homeless "... The cops keep telling her that she cannot sit in her wheelchair on the street, and even when they rest in the sun in Golden Gate Park, they are constantly harassed: a "concerned citizen" called the cops about "2 men exploiting their Mom to support their drug habit"... Charles has been clean and sober for 30 years, Larry since 1994 ! Larry states: "Elder Protective Services has been accusing us of exploiting our mother, look at her, does she looks abused?" "Yeah! (Bessie jumps in):Do I look abused? My sons do not set me up, I do this willingly!". Officer Gretchen Parker and her female partner were more human and conceded: "It is NOT illegal to panhandle". The Coalition on Homelessness has warned Park Station that the criminalization of Bessie and her children is unacceptable, and that the harassment must stop immediately. Not only the police but righteous citizens of San Francisco continue to criminalize Bessie and her sons: (Charlie ) "Once we were parked on Cole and Frederick in the Haight, this man spontaneously reached for his wallet, his wife grabbed him: Don't you give our money to HOMELESS SCUM ! if they are homeless, there must be a good reason why they deserve it !". Once someone openly laughed at Mama Bessie: "Oooh, now what? You're homeless?", and a Jewish woman straight out blurted to her: "I don't like homeless scum" (mesha)"What are your demands on the City of San Francisco?" (Bessie): "My wheelchair is rusting out, I need a new one! Cops: LEAVE ME ALONE ! Newsom: give me a place to live with my children ! Stop ignoring us !" (Charlie) "We just want to be treated like decent human beings and not common trash! We need a decent home so that we can properly attend on Mom, cleaned, fed and loved as she deserves! Poor people have been giving her five, ten dollars at a time, while rich folks look down on her because she is homeless. She needs real medical care, a good, caring doctor and all her meds!" (Larry): "I want to tell Mayor Newsom: What right do you have to attack people because they are homeless? What right do you have to send your cops to attack the Homeless? Why so unconcerned about people trying to survive? Get your head outta your butt, Gruesome Newsom!" You go, Mama Bessie and Sons ! We admire your courage and persistence, and you will get Justice ! (I took care of my Mami Suzanne until her death at 92 yr, and reflecting back, if I had to live in a cold car with her, out of shame and desperation I would probably would have blown both our brains out... MORE POWER TO YOU !). Bessie, Larry, Charlie, your story is going to rock San Francisco and the Nation big time. WORD ! (Idriss Stelley Foundation donated a cell phone to the family and will cover the monthly bill. I could not stand the thought of Mama Bessie risking a medical crisis in the middle of the night in a cold car, and due to lack of instant access to 911, God forbid the ambulance would arrive too late... Besides Serving and protecting the Rich, DO Serve and Protect the Disabled , Homeless and Seniors, Damnit ! After the November Elections, Idriss Stelley Foundation will host a Benefit at 4921 3rd Street to raise funds to replace Mama Bassie's wheelchair. ISF is now collecting donations for Bessie and her children to sleep and bathe in a motel until decent housing is secured ! No donation too big or too small: Together we can end the nighmare, by donating what we can, and pressure SF Hall of Shame to DO IMMEDIATELY DO THE RIGHT THING ! Checks are to be sent to: ISF, 4921 3rd Street, SF CA 94124, attn: Justice4Bessie You can call Larry Wilkerson at (415) 368-2261 (415-DOT-CAM1). Please log on to Justice 4 Bessie Berger, set up by Idriss Stelley Foundation, to show your love and support to Bessie, Larry & Charlie by emailing: Justice4Bessie-subscribe@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Bessie/ You can watch "In my declining years", video realized by PamPam Gaddies, Director of SF Peacemakers, Conscious Eyes, interview of Mama Bessie, @ http://www.current.tv/studio/media/13670557? Also another video from Deb Tullmann : http://www.current.tv/watch/13670557.htm

By: Posted: Oct 08 2006 03:23:47 AM

Odyssey HealthCare hospice & Columbus Healthcare Center nursing home Reply to this Comment

Michelle Barnhart (Volunteer Coordinator at Odyssey HealthCare hospice company)& Priscilla Williams (Director of Admissions at Columbus Healthcare Center nursing home) violated not only hospice philosophy and the Dying Person's Bill of Rights but also the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act. They refused to allow the patient to be in control of her social life (whom to visit with; length, number, & frequency of visits; how to spend the visits; etc.) and refused to tell her the truth regarding decisions affecting her. They also deliberately and repeatedly lied to that patient's family in order to prevent her from being visited by her best friend even though the patient repeatedly asked to see that friend and even though that friend had been the patient's only regular and frequent visitor. The Ombudsman was contacted and agreed that Ms. Barnhart and Ms. Williams had violated both the law and hospice ethics. However, before the situation could be resolved, the patient passed away after unnecessarily spending many hours alone. After she passed away, no further investigation was done by authorities, and Ms. Barnhart and Ms. Williams remain in their positions. Both are anencephalic, acardiac liars who have no business working in healthcare and especially not in hospice or in facilities that accept hospice services. Hospice is supposed to put the patient at the center and allow the patient to be in control. Ms. Barnhart and Ms. Williams knowingly act against the patients' wishes and should not be entrusted with the care of anyone, let alone those who have chosen hospice.

By: Posted: Oct 12 2006 02:03:37 PM

Response to Cathy Reply to this Comment

You're right: that nurse's conduct was very unprofessional. First try reporting her to the administrators (especially the Director of Nursing) at the nursing home where she works. If the administrators there are unwilling to do anything about the situation or the nurse continues that type of behavior, contact the Long-Term Care Ombudsman for your area; the Ombudsman program (at least in Ohio & probably in other states as well) is part of the state's Department of Aging. Make sure you have written down as many specifics as you remember: the nurse's exact words, the date(s) that the incident(s) occurred, who was present & witnessed the nurse's conduct, etc. Most of the authorities need as many specifics as possible before approaching a nurse or other staff member with accusations of unprofessional conduct. Sometimes the Ombudsman is very busy and/or the nursing home is uncooperative, and resolving the situation therefore takes longer than expected. But be persistent. If that nurse is behaving that way toward one patient's family, she's probably behaving the same way toward other families, too. Patients and their families have every right to insist on professional behavior from nurses and other staff members.

By: Posted: Oct 15 2006 09:28:00 AM

hospice Reply to this Comment

Michelle and Pricilla are great people! I know both of them. Michelle has over 5 year experience in hospice with volunteering and Priscilla is great with her patients! I don't know exactly what went on with your situation, but rest assured, if there was an Omsbudsman involved, who was "investigating" there definately would of been resutls if either of them were at fault.

By: Posted: Feb 15 2007 09:13:56 PM

POOR MEDICAL ATTENTION Reply to this Comment

Posted by MISSYPITT33 on 2007/07/14 They by far are the WORST so called medical facility I have ever dealt with. They don't keep their patients clean at all. If a patient request helps, it takes them an hou to get to them. The Doctors really suck, thye barely check in on their patients, they leave it up to the nurses, which are not liscensed MD's . When you try to contact a Dr about a family member, they NEVER return your calls, and even worse if a patient passes the Dr's such as ADLER, takes more than 24hrs to even sign a death certificate, even when a funeral home request it, he says when he's ready. And most of all, normally when a patient passes, usually the Dr will call the family. Well Adler is yet to call mine, and he refuses to return our calls, very very unprofessional. Also I never knew a deceased being could be transported from the hospital to the funeral home without a death certificate? Well this so called Dr did it. And then again we.(my family) had to drive to the hospital the next day to get the death certificate, and when we got there, first they said he was'nt there, then they said he was busy, then they said he was on vacation??? Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture. It's been 9 days and still "ADLER" has'nt called to even say what happened. I think he's a "POOR EXCUSE" of a so called DR. I can't believe this is a state funded facility, so much for New jersey monitoring who they fund huh? They just tell you a bunch of lies to get your loved ones money, they don't care, and I'm saying that from Experience. Please people "BEWARE" if you or a loved one needs real medical attention, please don't go to Bergen Regional medical center. If you really love your family members, don't let them be there, trust me I'm speaking first hand experience. And I would announce that on national tv, they really suck, and again lets not forget the state of NJ, they just offer broken promises about this facility, what it all boils down to, all they want is your money. They should be shut down, they by far show no professionalism especially "ADLER" if you love yourself and your family "DON'T DO IT".!!!!!

By: Posted: Jul 13 2007 10:42:49 PM

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