Let me give you some ADDITIONAL news. Not only can parents and minor children be separated but, also, parents and ADULT children can be separated as well.
In 2012, it was decided that I was neglecting my mom and that she needed a court-appointed guardian. This was decided to be true even though there was no evidence that I was.
I lost my rights when it came to making decisions regarding my mom — and the decisions made by the court-appointed guardian and/or those she decided should care for her instead of me actually shortened her earthly life by what I believe would be years.
I could be wrong, but I see her death as an untimely one — and, likely, coming closer to MURDER ONE than simply being medical decisions that were sincerely made to help her to get better.
She passed away at a ripe old age (not even a month after her 91st birthday), but I believe that it's quite likely that, had she been allowed to continue with her preferred path of care and treatment, she'd still be here and heading towards her 96th birthday this coming April 6.
Even before this came to pass, I was very aware that things needed to be improved when it came to decisions re: Child Protective Services and was starting to also become aware of how intrusive Adult Protective Services could be from horror stories I had read about or watched on TV.
My mom and I had also experienced this with my dad several years before when we were told at different times that he needed to be in the "safe" environment of a nursing home due to his Parkinson's.
We agreed at different times that a nursing home would be best for him as a temporary place while he received therapy, but we knew that he wanted to live out the rest of his life in his own home and looking out on our farm; watching TV and eating on his terms; etc.
We tried to make this happen as much as possible.
He was very aware and enjoyed going out on drives to see what all new was going on.
There's so much more that I can say, but I'll just sum things up for now by saying that — unless there actually IS something really bad going on that requires emergency action — APS. CPS, and their ilk need to stay out of the personal lives of families except for offering help when it's asked for.
In the case of my own family, I would come to understand much later that the reason for all of the intrusiveness had to do with greed on the part of several people.
Sorry to hear of your unfortunate circumstance with the Beast. Just to add a little more insight into this travesty I suggest reading this article: How the Elderly Lose Their Rights https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights
Thanks, @sojourner65! I'm going to go do this right away!
Thank you for sharing this!
I was never aware or did I ever give a thought for these kinds of injustices. However! I am completely aware of how these state run organizations operate.
If there is a buck to made out of tearing families apart, then you can bet you life on the fact that they will whilst claiming to be protecting your family.
All this makes it easy for people with with vendettas to play dirty tricks and use this system to benefit their own greed!
The world's gone money mad!
@markwhittam -- My apologies for waiting so long to get back with you. I've been busy with other parts of Cyberspace and other things (including simply trying to arrange my life so that I can get the most done on budgets of both time and cash) and have barely been here, though this will soon be changing.
Some of the "concerned" people who reported us (while denying that they did) actually were those who definitely had quite a bit to gain from it.
I suspect that there have been cases where money has gotten laundered and redistributed under-the-table as well as blackmail. I suspect that at least one person who has ended up being one of the worst offenders to the point that his reputation is well-known but hard-to-prove has been threatened with deportation if he didn't keep with the program. When I think things over, I believe that there have been several dealing with this same issue.
I'm still trying to figure it all out. I also see signs that there are several people who have been trying to help me. One of those people described it as having to sleep with the enemy.
That is so horrible. I am so sorry. At Health Impact News - the Medical Kidnap division - we have reported several adult protective services medical kidnappings as well. We have reported on 3 such cases in Boston alone, just since the new year. They are truly heartbreaking. I pray for the day that this corruption ends.
Keep fighting the good fight, @terri-lapoint!!!
I think that there are people out there who actually believe that what they do is okay and that they're actually doing the right thing (as in believing that the family isn't capable of making informed decisions and needed to be helped in this area -- make that OVERhelped...