Mother of Member Wanda Miller

“The county forced my mom into a nursing home“

My mother died last month.

It was her wish not to have a memorial service or obituary printed.

I have honored her wishes.

Therefore, I write this not as a memorial, but as a cautionary tale to those who have elderly parents.

There is a law in Pennsylvania that allows County Areas on Aging Protective Services to remove seniors from their homes, declare them incapacitated and force them into nursing homes.

Often, the caregivers of these seniors are stripped of their power of attorney and demonized by the courts.

A guardian is placed on the senior. Guardianship abuse is rampant in Pennsylvania.

Seniors and their families lose everything to this painfully flawed system.

The older adult loses all rights and dignities to the guardianship.

My mother was confined to a nursing home for six years.

She was often dirty and denied her basic human rights.

The nursing home was placed on the Medicare Special Focus Facility (SFF) list for 18 months.

A SFF nursing home is a facility that is so bad that Medicare/Medicaid can choose to stop paying residents’ bills.

That is exactly what happened in this case.

Keep in mind that York County Protective Services routinely places seniors in this facility.

Curious that an agency tasked with protecting seniors would remove older adults from “dangerous” situations and place them in a situation just as or more so dangerous than the original.

The kicker to all of this: Taxpayers get to foot the bill.

Reform for this system is moving at a snail’s pace.

Meanwhile, seniors and their families suffer in silence.

My mother wasn’t just a number.

She was a human being with hopes and dreams.

She loved me, as I loved her.

And I miss her so much.