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

Legislation updates

Patti's Comments:  This is very important update on policy and legislation from the disability community.

From UCP: (click for entire article)

Updates on the following issues:  Presidential Candidates Disability Forum, Long Term Services and Supports/Waiting Lists, Housing, Education, Employment, Transportation and Energy Assistance.

Lawmakers look at sex offenders in nursing homes

Patti's Comments:  Now I have another thing to worry about at night!!

From USA Today: (click for entire article)

Ray McDaniel's 18-year-old daughter was raped 10 days after moving into a nursing home — by a registered sex offender who also lived there.  No one was required to tell McDaniel that the 43-year-old sex offender was a resident of the nursing home where his daughter was admitted in 2005 because she is mentally retarded and has schizophrenia. The resident who attacked her pleaded guilty and is serving three years in prison.

More than 150,000 in Michigan Yet to Claim Economic Stimulus Payments

Patti's Comments:  Have you filed yet?

The IRS identified about 20 million low income seniors, disabled veterans and others with disabilities who are not otherwise required to file a tax return and, as a result, are at risk of missing out on the $300 payments ($600 for married ocpples).  Eligible people have until October 15 to file for their payments.

Download EconomicStimulusPayments.pdf

Testimony in Support of the ADA

Patti's Comments:  Congratulations to Jo Anne Simon for her great testimony in support of the ADA.

Jo Anne's law practice concentrates on disbility rights and employment discrimination matters.  This is her testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on July 15, 2008.

Download SimonTestimony.pdf

Survey: Seniors not preparing for legal issues

Patti's Comments: I am sad to hear that seniors are not preparing for legal issues. I encourage you all (no matter your age) to put your desires and intentions in writing!

From Lansing State Journal: (click for entire article)

Older Michiganians need to learn more about their rights when they're in the hospital, bone up on probate law and appoint someone to take care of their finances if they can't.  That's the picture painted by a new survey of the legal needs of people over 50 in Michigan conducted by the nonprofit Elderlaw of Michigan Inc.

Other issues that also arose in the survey: safety and mobility, especially for low-income older people, who have drastically different legal needs than those who have more resources.

"We needed a better understanding of what the needs were of older adults," said Kate Birnbryer White, executive director of Elderlaw. "We want to make sure that we're prepared to meet their needs, that we're putting our resources in the right places."

Why I am proud to be Greek

Patti's Comments:  And people think I should be embarrassed by my loud laugh!

Why I am proud to be Greek:

Because nights in Greece finish in the morning.
Because we drink our coffee slowly and not in "gulps".
Because flirting is our national pastime.
Because we go out almost every night, even if we are penniless.
Because we respect our Grandmothers sometimes more than our wives.
Because we know how to "spend" better than we know how to "save".
Because we never visit others empty-handed...we bring a cake or a bottle of wine.
Because we do not share the cost of gasoline with those traveling with us.
Because the word "filotimo" (helping someone because it is the right thing to do) doesn't exist in any other language.
Because whenever foreigners cannot find a word, they bloody steal one of ours!
Because we always make it, albeit in the last moment.
Because we love and hate with passion.
Because we spend our bad and low times with our friends and family; not with therapists and counselors.
Because Socrates, Plato, and Aristo tle were Hellenic and we still quote them!
Because we invented the theatre.
Because we gave birth to Democracy.
Because we jump-started science.
Because we are proud of our culture, not of our wars.
Because when we were building the Parthenon, the others were still sleeping under trees.
Because when others created wars, we created the Olympic Games to stop wars.
Because we don't use ketchup or mayonnaise with our food!
Because we get angry quickly, but forget about it even more quickly.
Because Greek men are not ashamed to cry.
Because we dance when we are sad and party when we are happy.
Because we work to live and we do not live to work.
Because 97% of the cosmic stars are named after Hellenics.
Because although we know danger well, we dare.
Because when you shout "adelfi" (brother) in the streets, everyone turns around.
Because "Greeks do not fight like heroes; heroes fight like Greeks."  (Winston Churchill, 1941)
Because we speak loudly and laugh even louder!
WHAT MORE IS THERE TO SAY?   No one will love you more deeply than a Greek.

Yia sas!

Americans with Disabilities Act sees 18-year success

Patti's Comments:  Congratulations to MSU on ADA success!

From Statenews.com:  (click for entire article)

Change didn’t happen right away. When the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, passed July 26, 1990, there had already been a law that required public universities to provide access for students with disabilities in place for 17 years. “The ADA put teeth into the law,” said Valerie Nilson, learning disabilities specialist for the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, or RCPD. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, prohibited any program or activity that received federal money to discriminate against people with disabilities, Nilson said.

By the time the ADA passed, the university already had about 300 students with disabilities registered, and MSU had had an office to assist students for 19 years, said Michael Hudson, director of the RCPD.

“Many of the rights were already afforded to college students and employees,” Hudson said. “But awareness became higher. The privileges given to higher education were expanded to the private sector.”

Economy hitting the elderly especially hard

Patti's Comments:  This is sad news.  Maybe more folks with developmental disabilities should consider volunteering to deliver meals on wheels with their support staff??

From MSNBC.com: (click for entire article)

Bob Emily put in an honest day’s labor every day of his life.  “I worked for the railroad, for the town marshal, security, bars, Sealy down here, UPS,” said Emily, 82, of Commerce City, Colo. “Worked hard all my life until I got sick.”  Then the bills started piling up.  “Hospital bills built up,” said Emily, who didn’t have health insurance. “I had to get loans to take care of my bills. Then I was getting behind on the loans.”  Every day, more calls and letters would come in from creditors and collectors. “I just got tired of it,” Emily said, so three months ago, he filed for bankruptcy.  That could take some of the pressure off. Then again, it might not. Food prices and medical costs are still rising, tarnishing what are supposed to be the golden years for the elderly, perhaps the hardest-hit victims of the slumping economy.

McCain vows to back changes to disabilities law

Patti's Comments:  Good man, good position.

From AP:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is pledging support for a proposal to expand protections for disabled people under an 18-year-old landmark civil rights law.

Speaking by satellite to a disabilities forum in Columbus, Ohio, from Arizona, McCain said Saturday that revisions to the Americans With Disabilities Act must leave no doubt that it was intended to protect from any discrimination that's based on physical or mental disabilities.

Supporters of the law say the Supreme Court has limited the law's reach.

A month ago, the House passed a bill to extend protections to people who take medicine to control epilepsy, diabetes or cancer or use prosthetic limbs.

Insurer Agrees To Annuity Settlement

Patti's Comments:  Congratulations to the members of this class action! Every single person in Michigan should be aware of the facts of this case and beware if something similar is proposed to them.  Also, you should never "purchase" a living trust. You should hire an attorney to draft a full estate plan which may or may not include a living trust (or more than one), a pour-over will, a power of attorney, a patient advocate designation, etc.

From National Underwriter:  (click for entire article)

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company has settled a class action suit in Kentucky state court over the sales of annuities to purchasers of living trusts.  The settlement resolves Panter vs. Tackett et al., a class-action suit filed in a Jefferson County, Ky., state circuit court against American Equity, West Des Moines, Iowa, and other plaintiffs. American Equity could pay the settlement to as many as 24,000 older consumers, according to documents filed with the court.