In-home healthcare is incredibly dangerous. How do you thoroughly vet your in-home employees? An in-home healthcare attendant stole my entire inheritance, court ordered checks made out to me from the death of my mother from mesothelioma, my parents’ home & my home, mutual funds & additional investments listing me as beneficiary, but the most heart wrenching above all is my mother was given 4 years to live & she was dead within 9 months. Meds can be used to mimic signs and symptoms causing incorrect diagnoses. This happens all the time. When hiring healthcare workers, there is a simple test given to weed out sociopaths. This happens during the hiring process and very normal and justifiable to the person being interviewed for a position as in-home healthcare. I’m not asking you to do that, I’m just asking how do you vet your future employees and employees you have working for you now in order to ensure safe in home healthcare?
These are ways to minimize theft. Most people won’t do them and then end up crying because “she stole all mom’s money.” And “I don’t know how to pay bills on a computer.” Well, you need to learn. It’s up to us to keep up with the times, be smart about taking precautions, and keep our loved ones (and ourselves) safe.
My LO was a stolen identity victim. We think it was because of giving out too much info on the phone. Only because I was checking accounts regularly did we discover the crime and shut it down before it got worse. Only because I could use a computer was I able to check the accounts.
Make sure the crooks aren’t smarter than you are.
Having a criminal record would help, but scammers know that by time they skip town with their victim's entire lifesavings they and their family members are in such a crisis they won't have the time, energy or means to pursue them. Then the scammers go on to get privately hired by their next clueless victim and, even if a background check is done, will come up with zero.
So the incident that happened to you and your Mother... was the aid from an agency? If so, wasn't the agency liable for what happened?
Privately hiring aids is one weak link in the process because there's no higher accountability and it's more difficult to get a background check. It's a downside of privately hiring. In our family, a massive elder theft was also carried out by a privately hired, unvetted "aid" who presented stellar letters of recommendation. My cousin who hired this person did it against my advice. Unless I actually knew the aid personally prior I would never privately hire anyone.
Even when my MIL was having social workers coming in and out of her home I made sure all her private and sensitive information was completely locked away. But I was raised by a single parent daughter of poor Italian immigrants who lived in the the Bronx, so my default setting is to be suspicious of everyone no matter what.
People should not wait for laws to pass to be responsible for their own protection because it will give a false sense of security.
"Meds can be used to mimic signs and symptoms causing incorrect diagnoses."
This is a vague comment... is this what happened in your Mom's case? Who was her PoA? Did she have one? How did this theft transpire on such a large scale? Knowing the details would help us learn how to protect ourselves better.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you and your Mom. I hope you get the help you need going forward.
Is that the case here, Margie?
As Geaton says, there is truly no way to correct for the necessity of having to have a stranger in your home with access to all of your private papers if said papers are out in the open, along with passwords, identification, cards and etc. But for someone to do what you say above it would likely require actually having got the signature and cooperation of the victim. Even people who hold solid POAs can't get access to these things without a legal struggle due to protections already in place.
You are new to Forum. I welcome you. If you completely fill out your profile we may be able to give you better answers. But there are evil thieves extant in our world, and there are people who are vulnerable. After doing all the normal things to vet caregivers (look on the internet for a list; easily found), there is little you can do but keep things very safely locked away, especially if the person being cared for is no longer completely mentally competent.
It's tragic, but predators will always find prey. We can hope for and plan the best we can. What are some suggests YOU, having been a victim, can suggest to US? Have you filed with the police/local sheriff?
Wishing you good luck.