His guardian’s conflict of interest was astounding to me, and yet it was perfectly legal. Victor was an elderly gentleman with a sharp mind and a frail body, living alone. He was widowed and had no children; he had emigrated from Italy as a young man. He had no relatives who could come to his aid.
Fortunately, he did have a few surviving friends, and one of them contacted us about his situation. It turned out that, when Victor had been admitted to the hospital, a social worker made the decision that he was unable to continue living on his own. On Monday, Victor found himself being transported by ambulance to a nursing home rather than back to his apartment. What happened next is a nightmare that I hope will never again occur in Ohio.
The nursing home was a dingy, smelly, utterly depressing old house. There were no recreational facilities or activities for the residents.
Victor did not want to remain there, but he found out that he had been placed under a guardianship by the nursing-home owner, without ever being examined by anyone from the Probate Court.
Instead, the doctor employed by the nursing home had signed an affidavit saying that Victor needed to be placed under the guardianship of the nursing-home owner. By the time our organization became involved, the nursing-home owner had control over Victor’s retirement benefits and received Medicaid benefits to keep him in the home.
Challenging the guardianship proved to be difficult, but eventually it was transferred to me and we moved Victor to a much better facility.
I would hope that guardianship reforms also will ban the granting of guardianships where there is a clear conflict of interest. With Ohio’s current patchwork of 88 county laws, I’m sure that the situation I’ve described is not unusual.
A person whose business stands to benefit financially from obtaining a guardianship should be barred from acting in this fiduciary role.
~LINDA A. ROOMANN
Source:
Guardian Regs Must Rule Out Conflicts