If someone suspects a person of abusong someone and they come to your house on two separate occasions, ask a lot of personal questions and then determine that there was in fact, no problem, why do they refuse to send them a letter of exoneration? This took place in Mass. The person is going to be involved in a lawsuit in which a piece of paper like this would make matters so much easier on him. I dont get it. They can come in and disrupt your life and then not take any responsibility for what went on?
Are they at any time obligated to tell you the name(s) of the people who complained if you wish to?
Your questiona are not quite clear. Although you probably won’t get much legal advice here, try giving a little more information.
Let’s say that Mrs. Jones came to Mrs. Smith’s house and asked her a lot of personal questions.
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Was Mrs. Jones there on official business as the representative of a government organization such as Protective Services?
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Did Mrs. Jones ask questions about someone living in Mrs. Smith’s home?
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Did Mrs. Jones tell Mrs. Smith that she saw no evidence of a problem?
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Who is the man who is going to be involved in a lawsuit?
Just because Mrs. Jones saw no evidence of elder abuse, that doesn’t mean that Mrs. Smith is not abusing an elderly person. Therefore, Mrs. Jones cannot say with certainty that abuse is not taking place. She could be called to give testimoney, but it probably wouldn’t mean that much since she would be testifying about what she did not see.
Usually the names of people who file a complaint with Protective Services are not revealed. That would discourage people from reporting abuse. If the reported person wasn’t abusing anyone, she or he should stay calm about it try not to be overly concerned. After all, Protective Services found no evidence of abuse. If there is some truth to the report, the accused person needs to talk with her or his doctor about what is happening and do it now!
Care-giving can exhaust the mind and the body. It is one of the hardest things that a person is every called upon to do.
I’ve just been through this and am still dealing with the repercussions. Hie thee to a lawyer.
Yes, Mrs Jones who went to Mrs Smith was sent there from her place of employment: the Elder Service authority in that particular area.
She asked questions about her husband who lives in the home and who has been ill for the past 6 months.
The individuals came back two weeks later and said that they see no evidence of any problem and that they were closing the case.
Well, then why close the case if they dont really know whether or not there was abuse? Keep it open and your ear to the ground for any other musings about anything negative. If they are going to come over make problems and then do nothing more than sniff around, why do it at all?
I should think that after the case is closed and there is no abuse found, they should tell the defendant who it was who made the original complaint just so there will not be any cases such as this. It was a waste of time on the part of the elder service people. The only abuse here is of the system.
I’ve hied awhile ago. Thats another problem. We drew up a very tight will with everything plainly spelled out, but then lawyer-man says that it could be contested and that he has no idea what a judge is going to say.
My question is why draw up a will at all if it is so easily put asunder? How secure is this document, and what sort of info does it take for a judge to say it is not valid?
No, the system worked exactly as it was supposed to, assuming no abuse is happening. Someone was concerned for your husband, and they made a call and people came by and investigated and decided they saw no evidence of abuse. Why does that mean you should know who made the call? I can understand that you’d like to know, for your own peace of mind, and perhaps a quiet chat about their worries and why they’re unfounded. But for every case in which a person wants a quiet chat, there’s another in which they’d go do violence to the person who called. Or, more importantly, people are concerned that if their identity was known, violence might happen, so no one would call and abuse would be more prevalent than it already is. Anonymity protects both concerned people and abused people.
I don’t understand your concern about the lawsuit. What “piece of paper” or “responsibility” do you want whom to present? If there was no evidence of abuse, then the there was no evidence of abuse. If the plantiff’s lawyer brings up that there was a call to protective services, that can quickly be followed up with, “…and they found no evidence of abuse and closed the case file with no further action.”
I guess I am just incensed that they would not send a letter to the person about whom the complaint was made. Why can’t they just send them a letter saying that there was a case but they found no problem?
If they can say it over the phone, why can’t they say it in letter form?
And why don’t they ever reaease the names of the plaintiffs? I would think that would keep crank complaints down to a minimum. Do you mean to tell me that every time someone wants ot make a false claim against someone all they have ot do is call up some place and they have to use their man power to follow up anything someone may say about them?
The piece of paper would be useful because the stepsons are trying to contest the will of a woman who was married to her husband for 6 years. They are saying all kinds of bad things about her and this isnt going to help. Its just if they had something in writing saying that she is ok, I thought it would be in her best interest, thats all.
I tend to agree with you. This anonymous snitching on your neighbors has gotten out of hand. Sure, they want to encourage reporting of abuse, animal cruelty, etc., but it leaves the door wide open for anyone with a personal agenda to accuse you of heinous crimes, open your life for inspection, and when they are proven wrong, then “Oops, I guess I made a mistake, and might make another mistake next week”.
Any person who TRULY thinks that you are abusing elders, your children, etc, should have the guts to not only call the police, but to tell it to your face. These wormy little neighbors with no life who only try to make yours miserable should do something more productive…
Did Mrs. Smith actually ask them for a letter and they said no?