Our Overreaching Adult Protective Services
The North Coast Journal reports on an appalling local case where our county's Adult Protective Services is accused of interfering with the End of Life directive of a dying man. Apparently the man, feeling his end of life was near, filled out a directive he didn't want medical care that wouldn't cure him if it only continued to just to keep him alive.
His wife and everyone in the family seemed happy with that, but Adult Protective Services got involved somehow and then seems to have made up claims the man had been, and was being abused. As the article points out, Adult Protective Services seemed the odd man out in the situation:
"Everybody here is on board except an outside third party, and they're not even family members,"
The man in question has since died. The APS workers just walked away and are thus likely to do this again. They deserve more sanction than simply being berated by courts. They shouldn't be able to just walk away.
I'm approached by hospital staff to complete an End of Life Declarations, or whatever it's called, every time I'm anywhere close to the hospital. This story encourages me to actually fill one out next time, although it also shows those declarations don't mean much when government rears its ugly head and gets involved.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:59 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
What do we do to keep the County Counsel guy from becoming one of our judges? I saw in that article they said letters had been sent to local lawyers.... doesn't the public have any way to comment??
I think I understand now.
A conservative views this incident as evidence that government involvement is bad and should be abolished. Down with regulation!
A progressive views it as a sign the system works. The vast majority of work that government agency does is good and much-needed. Will it always be perfect? No. So what happened when mistakes, or worse, intentional wrongs, were committed? The government was repeatedly shown to be in the wrong and the citizens won out.
The only change I'd look to is whether the employee(s) involved have lost their jobs or not, and whether the head of that agency needs to be replaced. Hold some feet to the fire, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
I would not want this agency to be scaled back because it would definitely (100% certainty) result in an increase in human suffering.
"What do we do to keep the County Counsel guy from becoming one of our judges?"
Agreed. I don't want that guy being a judge, either. I don't know what can be done aside from keeping an eye open for his name and support campaigns against him. Maybe even start a compaign against him?
John Chiv had quite a series on this particular case and the result which was a higher California court found everyone at the County level wrong...criticism from the bench even for the way they acted. I read the Court document which I enjoyed seeing after hearing the background on the case.
In addition to the End of Life declaration you might look online for other documents you could fill out and leave with all concerned parties...spouse, children, whoever would handle your estate, etc.
The woman who grossly mishandled this still works for the County but not in the same department. As for the others, read John Chiv's coverage, you'll get the names of the people and you can check them out for yourself. And I would make certain I had a copy of the directions with me and insist that a copy be made and attached to any medical records generated at the time of the visit.
Good luck, stay healthy.
What did y'all expect when giving gubbamint the votes to control y'all with power?
So, now adults are being treated like "the children" by gubbamint.
Better comment: Who the fuck are these piece of shit public employees?
Get their names, harass their asses out of the community.
Picket their homes!
Fuck Gubbamint!!!
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