Pages Menu

ELA Attorney Recognized For Work

UCSD Triton, a UC San Diego Alumni publication, recognizes Elder Law & Advocacy attorney Sharon Lee for her work: For victims of elder abuse, the golden years are dark. According to Sharon Lee, most instances go virtually undetected. “In 90 percent of the elder abuse cases, the abuse is perpetuated by a family member, a friend or someone who the client loved or trusted,” says Lee. “The client is put in a difficult situation where someone they care about is doing them wrong.” After working for a law student during her undergraduate years, Lee was inspired to pursue law herself. She received a law degree from the University of San Diego, and has been working as an attorney at Elder Law & Advocacy in San Diego since 2010. She dabbles in about 20 different areas of law, ranging from social security to property law, as she provides counseling to senior citizens. “A big component of what we do is physical, emotional and financial,” says Lee. “Some of the clients...

Read More

Tony Chicotel: The Inappropriate Use of Chemical Restraints in Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are using dangerous drugs “off label” to keep patients and residents docile. The FDA has warned against this but it continues to be a common practice. In some instances, this practice constitutes elder abuse. Attorney Tony Chicotel has been working to end this terrible practice. In this video, he discusses why it is happening, just how widespread it has become, and what we can all do to stop it. Links mentioned in the video: CANHR Campaign to Stop Drugging Toxic Medicine Guidebook CANHR.org Facility-Specific Drugging Data Stop Drugging Our Elders Blog Tony Chicotel on Chemical Restraints in Nursing Homes Posted by Jaime...

Read More

Elder Law & Advocacy Participates in the “Know Your Rights” Workshop

On October 29, 2012, Elder Law & Advocacy was represented by staff attorney, Bob Martin, at the “Know Your Rights” workshop. This session was held in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego and was assembled to promote healing of residents from trauma suffered due to recent heinous criminal activity. The City of San Diego Human Relations Commission sponsored the workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to gather knowledgeable individuals to speak to traumatized neighbors about issues that are most pressing to their community at this time. Among the issues discussed were immigration, contact with the police, reentry, expungement of criminal records, managing the criminal justice system, fair housing, and landlord-tenant issues. Mr. Martin’s presentation focused on elder abuse. He also addressed numerous other relevant topics. In the elder abuse segment of his presentation, Mr. Martin described to the audience the different types of elder abuse, including physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, neglect by a caregiver, and financial elder abuse.  Mr. Martin then discussed victim’s options for remedying and...

Read More

My Father’s Story: Choosing the Right Nursing Home Matters

Community nursing home rights advocate, Marian Hollingsworth, shares the personal story of her father’s rapid decline upon entering his nursing home.  Marian thought she could put her trust in the nursing home to provide the highest quality of care to her father.  Had she known more about the medications commonly used and the laws that exist to protect patients, her family’s story may have had a different ending.  She now shares the lessons she learned with others to ensure that those with ailing parents are better informed of their rights and are able to ask the proper questions when deciding on a nursing facility. – I thought that I had done everything right when I chose a home for my father for what was meant to be a short rehabilitation period.  My husband, brother, and I “shopped” a number of facilities.  I looked at online reviews and spoke to friends.  The home we chose for my father appeared nice and clean.  It had a rehab room where my father would get daily...

Read More

Hero Spotlight: HICAP Counselor Volunteers for 16 years… and Counting!

Volunteers are the ‘gifts’ that make free Medicare counseling sessions accessible for nearly 4,000 seniors each year.  Elder Law & Advocacy is honored to recognize the 30+ outstanding individuals whose generosity is the core of the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP).  This year, the longest serving volunteer, Edna Rosenthal, was presented with the Diamond Award at the Annual HICAP Appreciation Luncheon – and she is a true ‘diamond.’ Edna is a retired sales and advertising professional who has volunteered with ELA for sixteen years!  As a HICAP counselor, Edna meets  twice monthly with Medicare beneficiaries at the Encinitas Senior Center.  What is Edna’s motivation to keep going after so many years of volunteering?   “I find volunteering with HICAP very satisfying. I find it interesting and I like helping people to solve problems. I enjoy when the client says, “I didn’t know that!  Thank you!”… I guess I’m just a people person.”  – Edna HICAP volunteers, like Edna, come from a variety of professional backgrounds, ranging from engineering and biochemistry, to business management and jurisprudence....

Read More