gosti

i'm a newby to this. someone answered my question and I'd like to make a comment about their reply. also, I answered someone's question & they asked me a follow up question in their "thanks" reply to me. I don't see a button for me to reply to these people. Many thanks!

I provide excellent care for my elderly mother, who has dementia. She lives in a lovely apartment that I pay for, has doctors, caregivers, a case manager (at $175/hr), lots of attention from family, etc.

On two occasions now, a service provider (bank and hospital) has sent Adult Protective Services to investigate my Mom's situation, basically in retaliation when I complained about their poor service and multiple mistakes in their dealings with my mother. In the first case, the bank gave my mother $2,000 cash out of an account to which she did not have access. I reported their illegal action to their management.

And in the second case, a hospital subjected her to painful tests without any sedation, incorrectly recorded her current medications (and therefore incorrectly mis-dosed her while in the hospital), incorrectly recorded information on intake regarding her present living situation, etc., etc. and by the way, never did diagnose the problem that caused her to be admitted in the first place. I made it very clear that I was unhappy with the quality of service and treatment she received.

My question is, is there any recourse someone like me can take against these clearly unfounded and retaliatory reports to APS. I fully understand that many elderly are taken advantage of, but it seems to me that there should be some consequence for intentionally reporting someone without cause -- or for the "accused" to report the "accuser" when the claims turn out to be unfounded.

I am not worried at all about passing APS's investigation, it is just frustrating and insulting that I have to go through it, when in fact it is the service providers who have given poor service.

It seems that there should be some accountability on the part of the person reporting. it seems like now any idiot who has a beef -- totally unrelated to eldercare abuse -- with someone who manages the care of an elderly person, can report them and it gets taken seriously. Just not fair.