The same thing is happening to us! This must stop!
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I cried when I read your posting. Like you, my stepfather and I are living in hell except that it is ADULT protective services who are destroying our lives based on false information. SOMETHING needs to be done about the free reign that APS (Adult Protective Services) and the Public Guardians Office has over people's lives. My stepfather and I have learned the hard way that it doesn't matter whether one is guilty or innocent. The system is set up to be so sweeping that it destroys as many lives as it protects. As soon as ANY accusations are made, regaurdless of by whom or whether there is any truth to them, they have far too much power to act HOWEVER they choose, whether ethical or not, including emptying ones's checking accounts, leaving you without a way to pay for food or necessities, hauling you away at a moments notice with no explanation, harrassing and insulting you, harrassing your friends, searching your home without a warrent, etc. etc. etc. We are being downright harrassed and abused all in the NAME of protecting my stepfather...when in fact, it is them we need to be protected from. They have been totally dishonest with us, plus harassed and driven away our renters and fired our perfectly wonderful caregivers. They have DEVIOUSLY
tried to get my stepfather labeled as incompetent (by sneaking their own doctors in under false pretenses) when my stepfather was clearly competent and had already been evaluated as such...
just so they could take his rights away and conserve him. They have shown MAJOR INCOMPETENCE in getting their facts straight and made constant unfair, untrue and often downright ridiculous
accusations. They have spoken to us in very unnecessary and hurtful ways. For instance they accused me of stealing my stepfathers money to pay for a massage school. This is ludicrous because I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and cannot handle touching people in that way and have never in my life even THOUGHT of going to massage school. Where they come up with these ideas, we haven't a clue. Plus they have mislabeled me and called me a liar because of my disability which they do not understand (and do not care to). They have forced me to go to the state to get proof that I am disabled. They have cost my stepfather and I thousands of dollars which we do not have and forced us...plus our neighbors who are trying to help us, to have to hire lawyers to fight them, but we've been told that we cannot sue APS...they are allowed to get away with it just because of who they are. My sister is a social worker in another county and she tells me the horror stories of how families are ripped apart simply because the protective services (for adults OR children) are so afraid of being accused of doing too little that they go WAY overboard and go after people who are completely innocent...turning it into a witch hunt and distroying peoples lives, and then not being held accountable for their mistakes. Remember the 3 students in the news who were recently cleared of raping that girl at that party? One of them said after being "hanged" even though he was innocent that it had opened his eyes to a whole world of injustice that he didn't know existed. That is exactly how we feel. APS are all too anxious to believe untrue accusations. They claim to investigate but they come in WANTING to find a problem. If there isn't one, they invent one. They pretend to be caring but then misenterpret what you say and then twist it to support what they want to think. It sounds extreme, I know, but we beg you to listen to us. IT IS TRUE. For instance, my stepfather was hauled away to the hospital when there was nothing wrong with him (the doctors confirmed it) because someone trying to hurt us (probably a disgruntled caregiver who was recently fired) called and said his blood sugar was low. She couldn't even have known that unless she was there to test it, which she was not. We had already checked it ourselves (as we do every morning) and it was normal, but the paramedics insisted on checking it again and it was OF COURSE NORMAL. But they took him to the hospital anyway, and because the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him, he was stuck with the huge hospital bill (his insurance wouldn't pay it). Then he was forced to stay in a nursing home against his will for 6 weeks even though the doctors confirmed that he was perfectly healthy. And APS refused to tell us who made the false accusation or apologize in any way for what they had put us through. This is but one of MANY examples of false accusations made against us that we have had to endure. This has brought my 86 yr old stepfather to tears many times, and he is not usually one to cry. He just wants to live his last years in peace. He has told APS and the Public Guardians Office repeatedly that these accusations are untrue and simply the ravings of a very sick woman (the fired caregiver), but they do not believe him..even though they have seen time and time again that the accusations turned out to be false. They WANT to believe the accusations cause it gives them the right to come in and take over our lives. We are truley living in hell. They will not leave us alone. The Public Gaurdians Office and APS clearly do not care about my stepfather. They seem to get a rush of power from being able to take our rights away. One day I asked one of the workers (her name is Sarah Bromely) if they knew how much they were hurting us and she said quote "I don't really care." They have attacked everyone around my stepfather who has tried to help him (including our neighbors of 37 years) and accused them of having ulterior motives. We feel SO helpless and feel that our government has betrayed us. We've even thought of leaving the county to get our lives back. In this country you are suppose to be innocent until proven guilty. They are treating us all as if we are guilty even though they have no proof of anything. They are literally destroying our lives based on heresay, and because the Public Gaurdians Office has so much power, the judge listens to them instead of our lawyers. Our lawyers tell us it is a well known fact that the Gaurdians Office has far too much power and they are apalled by it. The law says: TITLE 31 CHAPTER 39. ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES § 3901. Legislative intent. The intent is to authorize only the least possible restrictions on the exercise of personal and civil rights and such restrictions may be permitted only when consistent with PROVEN NEED for services. (63 Del. Laws, c. 384, § 1. They are violating the social workers code of ethics held by the National Association Of Social Workers (NASW) of maintaining a clients dignity and self worth, respecting the importance of human relationships, and maintaining professional competence. Please help us bring this injustice to light. We are desperate.