tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281878342006-12-19T10:36:46.495-08:00Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, TrainerBlogger18118tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-41799477951813491732006-12-14T14:08:00.000-08:002006-12-15T05:35:41.972-08:00

For the season of giving... Caregivers in California who receive last-minute bequests from those they care for are presumed to have exercised undue influence, even if they were close friends. That’s because of a controversial 1993 law that was recently upheld on appeal (Bernard v. Foley). Probate Code Section 21350 was enacted following a scandal that involved an estate-planning attorney who

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-64589611985033798882006-12-04T17:37:00.000-08:002006-12-05T13:08:06.970-08:00

Last week, Melissa McKowan, prosecutor in the undue influence case I described in my last post, told me that the California Supreme Court has denied a request to review the appellate court’s reversal, so the case can’t be retried. She had this to say about the case: “I was devastated by the decision. The defendant made himself indispensable to Mr. Roussey, who became so attached to the

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1164031860572137472006-11-20T06:05:00.000-08:002006-11-21T10:13:14.383-08:00

So said a California appeals court last month in ruling on the case of a 78-year-old San Mateo man who wrote over $660,000 in checks to a friend and helper. Norman Roussey, who had an "anxiety disorder," lived with his mother until her death a decade ago. Roussey met Ronald Brock, a law school graduate who worked for his lawyer, while he was settling his mother's estate. Brock became his

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1163038451880065452006-11-08T18:05:00.000-08:002006-11-14T14:52:40.886-08:00

My old friend Fred Hertz is arguably the nation’s leading expert on “gay divorce.” A lawyer, he represents partners in break-ups and has written a book on the subject, been interviewed on NPR, appeared on Oprah, and is frequently quoted in the press. So, I was more than a little surprised when he told me recently that he doesn’t want to litigate cases anymore but instead, use his skills to

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1161697200285869462006-10-24T06:36:00.000-07:002006-11-08T17:06:33.033-08:00

Last month I was at the second “convening” of Archstone Foundation grantees, representatives from projects funded under the foundation’s 5-year, $8 million Elder Abuse and Neglect Initiative. I’m not actually a grantee but consult on two training projects. Along with my colleague Eileen Goldman, I’m helping faculty at San Francisco's City College develop a curriculum for fire fighters,

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1147761955840404032006-05-15T23:45:00.000-07:002006-10-31T14:56:36.630-08:00

The other day, I was updating a handout I use for presentations on financial abuse and decided to check up on a project I list in the "Best Practices” section. It's a program created to revamp Vermont’s restitution recovery system, which got started after a 2001 state auditor's report revealed that only 13 cents of every dollar owed for restitution had been collected during the previous year.

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1158770385728573062006-09-20T09:32:00.000-07:002006-10-31T14:47:11.626-08:00

Traditionally, those of us in the field of elder abuse prevention haven’t dealt with “consumer” crimes like telemarketing scams or identity theft. There was no evidence to suggest that elders were targeted, and some studies even suggested that elders were less likely than younger people to be victimized. Besides, our focus was on abuse by family members and acquaintances. It’s true that only

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1160580689557846512006-10-11T08:31:00.000-07:002006-10-17T13:12:56.380-07:00

A couple years ago, a friend who runs a dementia care program asked me to talk to her staff following a tragedy involving a client, a man with Alzheimer’s disease, who'd killed his wife. The staff was understandably upset. But what made matters worse was that some felt they’d seen it coming. They’d filed a report with APS, and a worker investigated. But since the violence was dementia-related

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1159277946824887252006-09-26T06:34:00.000-07:002006-10-10T14:47:09.136-07:00

Yesterday, I was composing a laundry list of the various disciplines and professionals that have a role to play in stopping elder abuse for a book I’m writing. It included all varieties of health and mental health care providers, bankers, judges, clergy, entomologists (don’t ask), auditors, mail carriers, social scientists and many, many more. In the other room, my husband was dealing with a

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1156263796634703642006-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:002006-08-30T16:04:59.956-07:00

Although I welcome feedback, apparently my blog doesn’t. Seems it’s been rejecting comments. I’m exploring how to fix the problem, but in the meantime, I wanted to pass along an item from Lori Delagrammatikas, program coordinator of Project Master at San Diego State University’s School of Social Work: Riverside County (California) convinced an IHSS administrative hearing judge to deny a client

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1155823589951694532006-08-17T07:00:00.000-07:002006-08-18T02:40:38.883-07:00

Years ago, San Francisco’s multidisciplinary team was discussing a case involving flagrant abuse by a chore worker. When the group learned that the worker was being paid with public funds through the state’s In-Home Support Services program, we turned to Mary Counihan, supervisor of our APS and IHSS units, and chimed in unison “Fire him!” It wasn’t that simple, Mary explained. Under IHSS,

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1153749535821330092006-07-24T06:50:00.000-07:002006-08-17T06:53:02.433-07:00

When Bruce Coleman retires from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the end of the month, it will be a tremendous loss for American elders and their advocates. As coordinator of “Project Emptor,” a position he’s held since 2004, Bruce has helped countless victims and “would be” victims of telemarketing fraud. Project Emptor, as in caveat emptor, Latin for "buyer beware," intercepts packages and

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1152565412731123382006-07-10T13:58:00.000-07:002006-08-14T10:59:37.173-07:00

Last month, I presented at the Offender Treatment, Victim Services, Restorative Justice conference in Miami, which was sponsored by the Institute of Evidence-Based and Best Practices. The conference was a bold one–it’s not that usual to bring victims’ and offenders’ advocates together, and when you throw in sessions on applying restorative justice (RJ) to domestic violence (DV), you know they

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1151327691553359072006-06-26T06:14:00.000-07:002006-06-26T06:14:51.556-07:00

It’s hard to believe that today marks the fifth anniversary of Rosalie Wolf’s death. For many of us, her presence is still very much felt. Almost daily, we see citations to her work, references to JEAN, and news about the organizations she spearheaded and the awards she inspired. But beyond these tangible reminders is something less concrete. In many ways, Rosalie set the tone for our field. It

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1150828602932928692006-06-20T11:32:00.000-07:002006-06-21T23:20:30.110-07:00

Last week, San Diego prosecutor Paul Greenwood posted a message to NCEA’s list serve about an “articulate, coherent and charming” elderly woman who’d sent over $50,000 to telemarketers in Canada despite being warned repeatedly that they were crooks. She described feeling “hypnotized.” It reminded me of when Dennis Morris, a San Francisco prosecutor, came to a meeting of our multidisciplinary

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1150222328541826922006-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:002006-06-13T11:12:08.556-07:00

Criminals shouldn’t be providing care to frail old people. That assumption is what’s driving more and more agencies, states and the federal government to explore criminal background checks for prospective long term care employees. But ensuring that vulnerable elders have trustworthy caregivers isn’t that easy. When Pennsylvania amended its protective service law prohibiting long-term facilities

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1148995735825203442006-05-30T06:28:00.000-07:002006-05-30T06:30:07.653-07:00

Kudos to Terry Fulmer, editor of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect (JEAN), and members of her editorial board who successfully got JEAN included among the publications Medline indexes. Medline is the National Library of Medicine's searchable database of publications and is used by researchers, health care practitioners, educators, administrators and students around the world. Medline takes

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28187834.post-1148506802884718252006-05-24T14:39:00.000-07:002006-05-28T06:06:06.263-07:00

It’s not surprising that Paul Kleyman would take offense at a “Close to Home” cartoon that ran in a recent edition of the Washington Post. In it, an elderly bald man is reading a tabloid called Aging Today, which has a wrinkled, swimsuit-clad elderly woman on its cover under the banner "1st annual swimsuit edition.” The cartoon’s caption is “A dark day in publishing.” Paul is editor of the real

Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainer