For Immediate Release
For information contact North Central PA ADAPT:
Shaylin Sluzalis – ssluzalis@gmail.org – (570) 777-0268
CALL TO ACTION: Help David get out of this death pit as he desperately wantsand needs!!
Confiscation of Resident’s Property, Inappropriate Admission to Local
Nursing Facility Are Civil Rights Violations
David, a resident of Embassy of Loyalsock wants out! He also wants his rights restoredand his court appointed guardianship terminated.
During this pandemic, residents like David count for more than 70% of Pennsylvania’s COVID, and 40% of the National Covid deaths. David does not meet eligibility criteria fornursing facility admission, and his current admission therefore violates federal regulations, violates his civil rights, and constitutes a threat to David’s life during this pandemic.
• The court-appointed guardian is violating David’s rights as well as his civil liberties by ignoring his wishes to receive community-based services back in his own home, a much safer environment than any nursing facility.
February 5, 2021, Williamsport, PA
David notified us that Embassy of Loyalsock confiscated the cell phone provided to himby Roads to Freedom, a Center for Independent Living that is federally mandated to provide advocacy, institutional transition services and other disability related services such as Assistive Technology to assure people with disabilities have equal access to information and communication.
David is being forced to share a room, phone and bathroom with three other
people. Stripping him of his personal cell phone is not only a rights violation, it’s inhumane! David does not meet the eligibility criteria for nursing home admission, yet he has been locked in a dangerous, restrictive environment and deprived of the means to communicate with the outside world.
For more information or to contact North Central PA ADAPT:
Shaylin Sluzalis – ssluzalis@gmail.org – (570) 777-0268
David’s right to be treated with dignity and respect is being violated each and
every day.
David has told us, “Every day I wake up in here, I wonder if this is the day I get
COVID and is this the day I will die here.”
The court-appointed guardian has failed to include David in the development
of a plan of supportive services, and in discharge planning as federally mandated.
Duties of any guardian of a person in Pennsylvania include:
(1) assertion of the rights and interests of the incapacitated person;
(2) respect for the wishes and preferences of the incapacitated person to the greatest extent possible;
(3) participation, where appropriate, in the development of a plan of supportive services to meet the person’s needs; and
(4) encouragement of the incapacitated person to participate to the maximum extent of his or her abilities in all decisions that affect him or her, to act on his or her behalf when he or she is able to do so, and to develop or regain his or her capacity to manage his or her personal affairs to the maximum extent feasible.
David has not been afforded these rights.
Disability Rights of PA has written “…the court has the power to place total control of a person’s affairs in the hands of another. This great power creates the opportunity for great abuse.” We see this as what has indeed happened in David’s case, and this abuse/neglect has had a direct impact on David’s mental and social well-being.
Court-appointed Guardian, Mary Beth Swan, Hundington County Area Office of Aging, is guilty of a conflict of interest because she represents both a provider of services that should be meeting David’s needs, and the role of guardian who is bound to assure that David’s needs are being met. Acting as the Financial Manager of his Estate (his home he desperately wants to return to), the Ombudsman, the Adult Protective Service Provider and Guardian are not only grossly conflicting roles, but have given her the power to steal his phone and his life, with no one to represent David’s wishes and interests.
Call Mary Beth Swan,
Protective Service and Care Manager Supervisor
Huntingdon Office on Aging
For more information or to contact North Central PA ADAPT:
Shaylin Sluzalis – ssluzalis@gmail.org – (570) 777-0268
307 10th Street, Huntingdon, PA16652.
(814) 643-5115, (800) 528-9155
Fax No. (814) 643-4249
814-494-2327 Cell
mswan@hbfaaa.org
Tell her ADAPT demands:
• She order the Staff of Embassy of Loyalsock nursing facility to
return David’s phone that is locked in the facility’s safe!
• Notify the Judge of her multiple conflicting roles, and petition
the court for a hearing to restore David’s rights, including an
independent third-party assessment and David’s preferences.
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