JANUARY 9, 2017 VOLUME 24 NUMBER 2
At Fleming & Curti, PLC, we represent seniors, people with disabilities and the family members who work with and support them. We also frequently act as trustee, agent, conservator or guardian for that population. It’s hard to capsulize exactly what we do, but if you ask any of us you’ll notice that we beam while attempting to characterize our work.
We have very good friends in California doing similar work at the Golden State Pooled Trust. The founder of that organization, attorney Stephen Dale from The Dale Law Firm in Pacheco, California (and his lovely wife Terri, who is instrumental in operation of the Trust), is a great friend and inspiration as well. He also does a very good job of capsulizing what we do, and why we do it.
Steve shared two stories about his trust beneficiaries this week. We think they perfectly explain the spark in our eyes when we explain our work, and we asked his permission to pass them along. See if they don’t make you think you want to work in this field, as well:
I want to share two stories with you that, for me, really bring home why we do this. One story is of triumph, the other is of hope.
So let me begin with the story of triumph. Mrs. B came to the Golden State Pooled Trust with a large settlement and our job was to keep her qualified for Medicaid because she lived in a skilled nursing facility. The first time I met her I visited her in the nursing home and my impression was that this was a woman who had completely lost interest in life — and the world seemed to have lost interest in her.
I asked Mrs. B what she would like me to do with the funds that would help her – and she pretty much was unresponsive. She hadn’t been out of bed in years without assistance and when I asked her if she would like to do things outside of the nursing home she rolled over away from me. I talked to the nursing staff who were caring and engaged to get their input – but there were limits on what they could do.
I called Sage Eldercare and I asked that a care manager be assigned to her and an assessment made about what could be done. They assigned Janeane to the case and through a series of thoughtful assessments Janeane had determined that she was probably capable of being ambulatory but needed more physical therapy than she was currently receiving.
Janeane began to implement a plan to fulfill that need and over time Mrs. B began to improve. She was asked again – what would she want to do other than stay in bed all day. Her answer: go to church.
Janeane secured private care staff to accompany her and off to church she went. Then her world expanded more, going shopping and occasionally going to excursions like the zoo. We at the Golden State Pooled Trust would get these wonderful progress reports, and we would pass them on to our board who loved each one.
The only harsh call I ever got from Mrs. B was once when her helper was late – and she wanted me to know she was a busy woman and needed to know when her helper would arrive so she could do some shopping. Was this really the shell of a woman I had met years earlier?
Mrs. B had been in decline for the past month, and sadly she passed away last week. As sad as her passing is, it fills my heart with joy and pride that her years under our care (primarily because of the actions of Sage and their staff) were made better and she lived a quality of life that would not have been possible but for their vigilance.
Now for the story of hope. Mr. F came to us recently and is a young man with many physical challenges and pretty much getting no services or oversight beyond his meager benefits. Mr. F got a modest settlement and is dependent on Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid and of course our job is to keep him qualified for benefits.
As often happens, we got off to a rocky start. His primary need beyond existing benefits is housing, and the first couple of weeks we made arrangements for short term housing which would be thwarted and cause our staff to have to bail him out of his situation to avoid having him literally be thrown out in the streets. He arranged for a room in what appeared to be a pretty unsafe part of his city, but it was unlikely this would be appropriate for the long term. Then he started making unbelievably inappropriate requests – and he was truly annoying me. This case was really going to be a challenge.
Clearly, we were not connecting – so I called ElderCare Services and arranged for a care manager to do an assessment and create a plan to get this under control. Brenda was assigned to the case, and she wanted a Golden State Pooled Trust staff member to go with her on the first assessment; reluctantly, I agreed.
So off they went to meet with Mr. F. and several hours later they returned. The report I received was that Mr. F is living in a place of incredible squalor – and that beyond the filth of his closet sized room, the entrance to his building is basically inaccessible for his physical needs. The other part of the report was that Mr. F was thankful for the visit, and appears to be committed to work with Brenda. Is it possible that we could do more than keep a roof over his head until the funds run out?
Though his settlement was significant, he doesn’t have unlimited funds. With the right guidance he is fully capable of becoming self-supporting someday, and graduating from the ranks of the lost and forgotten. I am so glad that we have Barbara on the job, and my expectation is that with her guidance we will find Mr. F a safe and appropriate place to live, and maybe we can get him connected a healthier community and set his life on a path that will change his life for the better before his funds run out.
We have many stories in our little pooled trust, and my hope is that we will have many more to come and the services we provide will continue indefinitely. Yes, our folks are almost universally difficult with challenges sometimes that are hard to understand until we dig below the surface.
Even so, Mrs. B’s personal effect on my life was to give me hope and pride in our staff, and our partners that include many care management agencies. For myself and all at the Golden State Pooled Mrs. B’s final years with us has made our lives better. For Mr. F, we have an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life – how cool is that?
How cool, indeed.
