July 1, 2009

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how difficult it was for our family to stop con artists from scamming an elderly relative who was convinced that he was on the verge of winning big lottery and sweepstakes prizes.

Digging into our family’s experience yielded another surprise: Some common business practices may have actually helped the scams continue, such as the sale of direct marketing lists and banks’ moves to automatically cover overdrafts—an issue that President Barack Obama has flagged for attention under his proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

When our relative began to fall behind on bills, he agreed to give power of attorney to a son, who started paying the mortgage and other big bills, as well as reducing the amount available in his dad’s checking account. What the son didn’t count on was that the bank would automatically cover up to several hundred dollars a month of his father’s overdrafts, which essentially gave him more money to send to scammers. In addition, he was charged $33 for every overdraft—running up hundreds of dollars in fees. When the son called Sovereign Bank, his father’s longtime bank, he was told that the protection was standard and that he couldn’t turn it off.

Steven Mantelli, Sovereign’s senior vice president for retail banking, says the bank provides overdraft protection “on a courtesy basis” for customers, and it isn’t typically shut off. But in isolated situations, he says, the bank will stop it.

Alzheimer families feeling ‘betrayed’ as respite centre shuts

By Andrew Phelan

June 25 2009

OPPOSITION is growing over the latest hospital closure to hit the health service — the summer shutting of a newly refurbished respite care unit at Cherry Orchard.

At least 25 families caring for elderly relatives including Alzheimer’s sufferers will be affected by the imminent move by the HSE.

Fearing disruption to the respite services, they are mounting a protest campaign demanding that the closure of the Beech Unit be called off, and claiming they had been “betrayed” by the Government.

Families from Ballyfermot, Clondalkin and Palmerstown are all set to be affected and some patients claim they have been told to look for private care in homes in Harold’s Cross and Lucan.

But the HSE denied that the unit would close “indefinitely”, insisting it would be up and running as normal again in October. The Executive also said those who could not be relocated elsewhere in the hospital would be sent to nursing homes as close as possible to where they lived.

A protest was mounted outside the hospital gates on June 19. A public meeting will be held in Ballyfermot next Tuesday to discuss the planned cuts and to organise support.

Lesley Gaynor, one of the main organisers of the campaign, said he had been inundated with phone calls since the announcement was made.

godsend

Lesley and his family care for his father-in-law and mother-in-law in their house on Kylemore Road and he says the short breaks they get thanks to the respite care are “a godsend”.

A spokesperson for the HSE blamed the closure on a combination of summer being “peak holiday period” and large numbers of staff being absent on maternity leave