Pages

Thursday, March 24, 2016

As I said in the previous post, I’ve allowed the blog to lie dormant as I’ve tried to resolve these issues with Hebrew SeniorLife. Unfortunately, there’s been little movement. I continue to have pronounced noise issues in this new apartment, and in addition, there is an elderly couple down the hall in an advanced state of deterioration, being “cared” for by a family of non-professionals who’ve turned them into a sort of family business. The couple is incontinent, the “caretakers” don’t keep them clean and there is an odor of urine pervading the hall.

This is all the result of the fact that - as I mentioned in one of my posts of last year - people are left here for far too long, way past the point at which they should be moved on to facilities in which they would be better served. It has recently been brought to my attention that it isn’t merely a matter of laziness and apathy on the part of the administration (although it is certainly that), but that in addition, the management represents this facility to potential renters as being a sort of low cost alternative to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. They’re either told, or allowed to infer, that the social work department (which consists solely of two social workers, one full-time and one part-time, and one or two college interns per semester) monitors the residents far more closely, and interacts with them far more regularly, than it actually does. There have been incidents in which people have moved in, and almost immediately moved out, because their families discovered they had been lied to, and that this facility isn't capable of rendering the kind of care they were led to believe it is. 



Regarding the exchanges between lawyers - my lawyer responded to Rhonda’s lawyer last fall. Her lawyer declined to respond, refused to return my lawyer’s phone calls and emails, and actually ran away from him in court, twice, when he tried to talk to her. I don’t know whether or not this behavior is illegal or in violation of the legal profession’s code of ethics, but I intend to lodge a formal complaint against her with the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations.

After weeks of this avoidance, I took all of the correspondence to date and sent it to Louis Woolf, the CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife. Two weeks later, my lawyer received a hastily cobbled together letter from Rhonda’s lawyer, which distilled down to, “We’re absolutely right, he’s absolutely wrong, all of our accusations are true, all of his are false, tell him not to bother Mr. Woolf any more, and we think he’d be happier elsewhere.” The latter statement is especially ludicrous, as I told Lou Woolf in my letter that his employees have destroyed my health, that I want to leave this facility, and that I would like him to use Hebrew SeniorLife’s influence and connections to help me to do so, so that I don’t have to be on waiting lists for years. That, they chose to ignore. My lawyer emailed her lawyer to inquire as to what they intended to do to facilitate my departure. He never heard back from her.



A week later, I received a three or four-line letter from Louis Woolf, saying, “Sorry to hear about your problems. Hope they can be resolved. Best of luck in the coming year.” I’m sure he was told by legal counsel to send it merely so it would look as though he’d responded to me, in case this ended up in court. Instead of coming to me like an adult (which he should have done a year ago, when I began blogging), and saying, “This has gone far enough; let’s you and I meet and see if we can resolve this situation amicably”, he’s chosen to hide behind the lawyer’s skirt - and for this kind of “leadership”, he’s being paid in the neighborhood of half a million dollars per year. It’s absolutely disgraceful, and is yet one more manifestation of a reality I described here last year - that for decades, Hebrew SeniorLife has been pulling a con job on the Jewish community of Boston. It takes millions of dollars per year from that community, and returns very little of it in the form of services. HSL has become a haven for career bureaucrats who view the organization as their own private cash cow.



Currently, the most pressing noise issue involves an 86 year-old woman who lives above me. She’s frail, in failing physical and mental health, and complains to one of her caretakers that she’s bored and lonely, and has nothing to do all day but rearrange her drawers - which she does incessantly, making a great deal of noise, beginning at 5:00 AM and continuing until midnight, when she finally goes to sleep. I’ve informed the management that she is exhibiting compulsive repetitive behavior and that they need to involve her children, to tell them she needs to be examined by a doctor, preferably a geriatric psychiatrist, and to suggest it is time to move her to a facility in which she would be monitored and interacted with on a daily basis. So far, they’ve avoided doing all of the above.



This week, I sent two emails to the Property Manager of Center Communities. The first was sent Monday, describing the situation yet again, and telling her if nothing is done, I will have to proceed to litigation. Today is Thursday, and I’ve had no reply. The woman’s children are in town today for her birthday. I have, this morning, sent her another email, informing her of this and telling her this is her opportunity to speak to them. If she does nothing, I intend to proceed legally against Hebrew SeniorLife. I also intend to bring in inspectors from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to show them that a large percentage, probably the majority, of the residents here belong in assisted living facilities and nursing homes, and that it is a matter of elder abuse that they are allowed to remain here for as long as they are, with little if any professional care. I am also seriously considering going to the newspapers, and to the news departments of the local television stations.

No comments:

Post a Comment