By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or
[email protected] to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
Did your father say your were exploiting him? If so, time to turn the reins over to someone else. It's hard enough to do all this work but then to be falsely accused of wrong doing? No thanks.
So, in other words you went against the better judgment of the physician listening to your dad.
Where did the accusations of the financial abuse come from?
Discovering the cause is of paramount importance.
Severe heart or lung disease, kidney disease, cancer.
Following up on an outpatient basis can still be done.
Unless your father has been declared (by a doctor) mentally incompetent and unable to make his own decisions, none of you including your father, owe anyone an explanation for anything.
Many times healthcare and social work "professionals" will use intimidation tactics on a family when really they don't have a legal leg to stand on. This would be because many of these people receive incentives to get a person placed in a certain facility or rehab or to get the signed up with certain homecare agencies that are affliated to them in some way or other.
Unless you are a court-appointed POA or conservator for your father, you don't owe APS a damn thing and you don't answer to them. I had a couple of dealings with APS once on a private-duty care case I was working and once when the nursing home my parent was in was demanding I hand over POA to them. Both times they were told to get a warrant. I wasn't doing anything wrong and neither are you.
You don't owe them receipts or bank statements. You don't have to keep records of what got paid and to whom. You owe them nothing. So give them nothing. You are not your father's legal representative. Even if you were, you would be answering to the probate court, not APS.
These people are just shaking the tree to see what falls out of it. Don't give into them. You are under no legal obligation to answer to these people. If they shake it too hard, petition the court for a restraining order against this harassment.
Get yourself to a lawyer though. First meetings are usually free. You do not owe APS an explanation for your father's finances and neither does he. If a sheriff serves you with papers to appear in court, then you MAY have to answer some questions. You do not have to now.
Also, if your father is not in a care facility, has no immediate plans to get put in one, and no one's looking to get him on Medicaid - no one will have to offer any explanations.
My guess here is your father probably ran his mouth in the hospital about you stealing from him and played the victim as you said to get attention and now it's rolled back on him and everyone else.
I wouldn't worry if I were you. Not unless you get a court summons.
Talk to a lawyer though. For your own peace of mind.
If the court appoints a conservator/guardian and financial POA over your father, let them. That's not on you.
So, if you are dependent on his income to pay the bills and have a roof over your head, you are going to need to start to make changes. It may be that Dad's best place for him to be is in a nursing home, and his care will be beyond what you can handle.
As far as APS, just tell them the money went to living expenses. The worst that would happen is they may send a referral to the state's attorney's office, then it would be up to them to see if they want to bring charges. They likely won't unless significant money(tens of thousands) was stolen. But if you were dependent on dad's income to survive, that will end, because they won't allow you to live with him anymore.
More likely it's a fishing expedition to see what financial information they can find out without actually getting subpoenas for a person's financial information. That is what these people do. If there's an elder who doesn't have "services" through a homecare agency and there is no case file with social services because they aren't getting anything paid from the state, no one knows what assets grandpa has.
Social Services used to get up in my mother's business. They go on fishing expeditions when old people have no registered services. They call and promise of all kinds of "free" stuff. Nothing is free if you own anything. Or if you want to remain in charge of your own life when you're old. She has all the help she needs and is well cared for. Social Services actually came to her house. When they get nowhere, they send for APS. They're very nice. Her aide knew to call me immediately on videochat. I held up the POA documents and told this person if they ever come to the house again they'd better have a warrant from a judge to be there. If they don't and just "want to talk" the aides are instructed to call me and the police. I made it easy for this person and told her there was no need for her to get excited over possible assets because aren't any. I own the property my parent lives in so she needs to go fish elsewhere.
They never came back. They phone solicit from time to time and brochures from homecare agencies and care facilities come in the mail regularly, but no visits from APS or social services.
When you are spending someone elses money, you keep records. My Moms bank statement showed the money going in and the money going out. TG, for a fee, our bank had pictures of the checks.
APS may have been told that you have been exploiting him financially (or it may be something they always check), but they may also be getting very confusing stories about what’s best for him medically. If F actually wants to come home, it would be good to tell him that all this is likely to stop you taking him, and he should be clear and honest.
If you are POA and have been spending your father's funds for his care, did you not understand that you needed meticulous records?
You will need to comply and I would do this as graciously and as thoroughly as you are able. If you did not know that you needed records of expenditures then be honest with those investigating. You may be facing charges of elder fraud and abuse and this is not to be taken lightly. If you have acted wrongly in innocence or ignorance of the requirements, then be honest about this with those investigating. Provide everything you possibly can in writing as to what you spent, on what you spent it, and when and why.
If you did nothing wrong, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I believe they are good at telling when people are lying or if anything is fishy. So don't lie be honest. Most people don't save receipts.
Best of luck.
How did APS get involved in the first place? Do you live with your father or is he in a care facility? Did you dad call them?
We need more information to be able to give better suggestions.