The gathering of elder care advocates and victims of guardianship abuse in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 13, and 14 has been judged “a landmark event in the reform movement,” according to elder care advocate and event organizer Latifa Ring.
Ring, now a resident of Texas, was raised in a children’s home in Africa that was operated by American nuns, and ultimately found herself fighting for the freedom of the people who had raised her. She thus has gained a first-hand knowledge of guardianship abuse.
Ring said today that the event was a success on many levels, including attracting the attention of national level media as well as members of Congress and representatives from the Commission on Aging.
“We went to their house and got in their face,” Ring said of DC lawmakers and bureaucrats. “We gave the system a litmus test.”
Ring who worked as a staffer in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign said that more than 30 victims of elder abuse, financial exploitation and guardianship abuse testified in a 2-hour information session at the Rayburn Building.
The stories came from across the United States and were remarkably similar, regardless of the state or jurisdiction where the abuse occurred, she said.
“People say that guardianship abuse is a state issue,” Ring said, adding the testimony of so many victims shows it is a federal issue as well. “Story after story showed the same pattern” she said.
Guardians who abuse the system are guilty of “predatory exploitation” Ring said. She added that such people, including judges and lawyers who milk the system, have a two point approach. First they decide “I want money,” Ring said.
Second they decide “I want your parents’ money.”
The system, as it is now operating, has created “an identifiable class of disabled citizens, who are declared legally incapacitated, discriminated against, and treated disparately by the government.”
The exploitation and abuse of the elderly is often condoned thorough inaction, she noted. “People go to the police with complaints of elder abuse and they don’t take the case,” she said. “They say it is a civil matter” or they just don’t deal with it.
Ring added that law enforcement authorities often discard elder abuse complaints without even conducting preliminary investigations. Thus the people and agencies responsible for caring for the elderly allow abuse to continue “Wrapped in the cloak of law,” she added.
Ring said she was very encouraged by the attention the conference received and is in the process of producing a video of the numerous speakers that will be used to educate even more media personnel, federal personnel and representatives. Many who attended the information session were shocked that elder abuse is so widespread, takes so many forms, and exists nationwide.
Someone has to get the message through to Congress, she said, that the Emperor not only is not wearing clothes, but is “strutting around butt naked.”
