Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Estes Audiology Awards Hearing Aids to Two Worthy Recipients in Central Texas

Excerpt from PRWeb: (click for entire article)

Estes Audiology (www.HearLifeAgain.com), a professional hearing healthcare provider dedicated to improving the lives of the hearing impaired and their families, announced today that the recipients of its “Gift of Hearing” are Mary Ann Silva and Jane Whitehouse of New Braunfels. Since 2005, Estes Audiology’s “Gift of Hearing” has given away more than 10 pairs of hearing aids to deserving individuals such as Mary Ann Silva and Jane Whitehouse who also suffer from hearing impairment.

“I could not be more proud to provide hearing aids and hearing healthcare solutions to these two very deserving women,” said Dr. Soriya Estes, founder and owner of Estes Audiology. “Their positive and gracious outlook on life and their selflessness - even when faced with adversity – shows how remarkable these women are. I am honored that we at Estes Audiology can give back to these women who have given so much to others.”

Mental Health Disaster Relief Not Always Clear Cut

Excerpt from NPR: (click for entire article)

The emails started coming several days after the earthquake. Charitable organizations based in Haiti had been taking stock and discovered that, in addition to everything else that was desperately needed, their staffs were emotionally shaken — they needed someone to help.

So they began reaching out to people like Amber Gray. Gray is a psychotherapist based in New Mexico, and she says the message she got was clear. "You know, we need counseling, somebody to come in and provide support."

So, Gray made travel plans. And as she readied herself and packed her bags, more emails came — this time from other mental health professionals, therapists like Gray who were devastated by the images they saw on television and wanted to go help the people of Haiti directly. "Probably twenty a day, specifically on mental health," Gray says.

Award Winning Author and Patient Advocate Releases "The Patient Safety Checklist" to Prevent Medical Errors in Hospitals

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

Surgical safety checklists have been shown to be very effective in significantly reducing fatal medical errors when used by surgeons and members of the surgical team. (See Harvard study.) Martine Ehrenclou, author of the multiple award winning book, Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved One Out Alive, has created "The Patient Safety Checklist" for patients and their advocates to further close the gap on preventing medical errors in hospitals.

Ehrenclou created "The Patient Safety Checklist" for hospitalized patients and their family members to work together with the medical professionals in increasing the likelihood that a hospitalized patient will not fall victim to deadly medical errors. "A collaborative effort is needed," states Ehrenclou. "With the pressure physicians and nurses are currently under, patients and their family members must get involved in the hospitalized patient's medical care."

Another Legislative year, another axe for disabled services?

Excerpt from Salt Lake Tribune: (click for entire article)

During Christmas vacation, Broderick Leiataua took his mother's hand several times a day and guided her to the door. Though the 12-year-old boy is severely autistic and cannot speak, she knew where he wanted to go.  His after-school program for autistic children has literally changed his family's life, allowing his mother, Clarissa Crisp, to earn a college degree and raise her family above the poverty level.

Now, with potentially huge state budget cuts looming for disabled programs across Utah, many parents like Crisp are panicked.  "We're finally at a place tonight where things are coming together," she said. "My biggest fear is for my son to end up in an institution."  The fear is nothing new for Utah families with disabled children, who greeted last year's $4.6 million cut to the Division of Services for People with Disabilities with fatigue and trepidation.  Often worn out by caring for their intellectually or physically disabled child, they worry about losing any more hours of in-home help or day-care programs.

Last year's cuts shaved $1.5 million from private companies that have state contracts to provide most day-to-day care for the disabled. Several state programs that offered low-cost services to families significantly shrank or disappeared. More than 100 state jobs were privatized, saving the state thousands on overhead.

Disabled face difficulties at DMV

Excerpt from Charlotte Observer: (click for entire article)

Across North Carolina, many state license plate agencies and driver's license offices are not fully accessible to disabled people who need to get tags or placards.

A new study by the Division of Motor Vehicles found widespread problems: lack of handicapped parking, ramps and curb cuts; bathrooms and water fountains not adapted for wheelchairs; and service counters that are too high.

"We have been hearing that DMV offices have problems related to accessibility," said Vicki Smith, executive director of the Disability Rights North Carolina, a nonprofit group that advocates for disabled people. "All you have to do is go into a license plate agency and you can see the challenges."

Medical marijuana use keeps woman from regaining license

Excerpt from Rutland Herald: (click for entire article)

Deborah Baxter, a Bradford resident, has had a Vermont medical marijuana card for about three years and can legally smoke pot to ease her physical pain. Yet the state is punishing her for her use of the leafy green drug.

Earlier this month, a hearing officer for the Vermont Agency of Transportation rejected the 52-year-old Baxter's request to renew her driving privileges, which have been suspended since 2004 when she was convicted of her third offense of drunken driving.

The officer's reason was that Baxter's use of medical marijuana - which he acknowledged is legal - violates the "total abstinence" requirement that petitioners like Baxter must fulfill to get their licenses back.

The ruling, though an exercise in legal nuance, has concrete effects for Baxter. It also appears that the abstinence requirement could ensnare others who wouldn't expect it to.

A Kennedy Dream Denied

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: (click for entire article)

Another piece of Ted Kennedy's dream of universal health care may be lost in the compromise meat grinder that has produced a deformed, complicated, top heavy and unpopular pro-insurance company bill-his proposal to begin building, for the first time, a civilized policy for the long term care of millions of elderly and disabled Americans.

First, the apparent loss of a strong public Medicare-like choice among the insurance options, included in Kennedy's bill, will likely mean that private insurers won't offer younger workers and aging boomers long term care insurance at an affordable price. Only a few employers, including the federal government, offers such policies.

But more specifically, there is doubt that Kennedy's measure, called the CLASS Act (for Community Living Assistance Services and Support) will survive in the health reform legislation strong enough to be any good. The CLASS Act, though far from adequate, would provide for workers to voluntarily contribute to individual accounts that eventually would pay part (perhaps $100 a day) of the cost of their long term care. Some suggest this should be mandatory.

It would be the first, small step towards a public program to eventually provide long term care for every American who needs it. Naturally, it is opposed by long term care insurers and their allies among Republicans and conservative Democrats who worry more about the bottom line than people's well-being. So far, the proposal does not have a high priority among advocates of health care reform, including the White House, for they're concentrating their efforts on the 47 million middle and working class people, mostly young, who are without basic health coverage.

Judicial Modification of Bypass Trust Does Not Constitute the Release of a General Power of Appointment

Patti's Comments:  Important for those of us who need to reform trusts via Court Order.

Excerpt from Wealth Strategies Journal: (click for entire article)

In PLR 201002013, the IRS ruled that a judicial modification of a bypass trust to correct an attorney's drafting error would not constitute the exercise or release of a general power of appointment.

IRS Exempts Municipal Trust Income

Excerpt from Wealth Strategies Journal: (click for entire article)

In PLR 201002023, the IRS ruled that income from a trust created by a municipality to fund medical benefits for retired employees is tax-exempt. The Service also ruled that contributions to the plan and payments from the plan are excludable from the recipient's gross income.

The Unloved Annuity Gets a Hug From Obama

Excerpt from Wealth Strategies Journal: (click for entire article)

The New York Times, in an article titled "The Unloved Annuity Gets a Hug From Obama," reports that the Administration plans to promote annuities as a means of secure retirement income. The article notes that the House recently proposed a bill that would waive 50 percent of the taxes on the first $10,000 in annuity payouts per year and that the White House may soon start promoting the bill.