Ed & I in facility library
We’ve lived in Wellington, Florida for about 25 years and for most of those years, Rob & I have had a dog, so our huge dog park has been a daily afternoon visit. We’ve got a spot in the park that is shaded and always has a breeze. For the past 10 years, the group has changed as people moved away or return north for the summer.
One of the men who has been in our daily group for several years now is Ed Whitaker, who comes with his friend, Mary Moricoli and her Welsh Corgi that Ed bought for her when her previous Corgi died. Ed, now in his early 80s, taught high school history for years and any time a date is mentioned – any date, regardless of how far back in history- Ed knows the specifics. His memory is impeccable.
Ed lives in an assisted living facility, doesn’t have a car, so every day Mary M picks him up and brings him to the dog park. The group goes out to dinner a couple times a month, always to a restaurant with outside seating so we can bring our dogs. About two weeks ago, Mary M arrived at the dog park without Ed and told us his niece, Mary Bishop, who has power of attorney, moved him to a different facility,Wellington Bay, where he was put in memory care.
HUH? All of us were shocked. Mary told us that Ed’s niece, Mary Bishop, had blackballed her from visiting him. We also learned that one day Ed had gone back to his apartment and found the place empty. His furniture had been moved out. And then, he was taken to the memory care facility.Our first question: Does he have an attorney? No. Second question: Does power of attorney mean you can put the person in a locked ward without their consent? No. According to Florida law:
- Capacity is Decisive: If a person has capacity, they cannot be forced into a facility, regardless of a POA document. A POA agent only has authority when the principal lacks capacity.
- Voluntary vs. Involuntary: If the person with dementia/memory loss does not object, a POA agent may facilitate voluntary admission.
- Involuntary Commitment: To legally place someone who is actively resisting and objects to a locked ward, the agent likely needs a court order determining incapacity and appointing a guardian.
- Emergency Situations: If the person is in imminent danger due to wandering or self-harm, a doctor or law enforcement can arrange an emergency evaluation (e.g., Baker Act), which is a temporary, non-permanent measure.
We spoke with a retired attorney who comes to the park & he said power of attorney can be revoked and that Ed needed an attorney who specialized in elder abuse. I spoke to Ed several times and he told me he’d revoked his niece’s power of attorney, but Wellington Bay didn’t pay any attention to that – perhaps because it wasn’t in writing & he didn’t have a lawyer. He didn’t want to be there, hadn’t given his consent, had called the law firm a friend had given us and so had Lloyd, part of the group, and no one ever bothered returning the call.
Mary M and Ed spoke daily by phone, so Mary told him that Rob & I were coming by Wellington Bay on a Saturday afternoon to see if we would be allowed to see him & take him out for dinner. We were allowed into the locked memory care ward and Ed was waiting for us. The woman at the front desk told us we couldn’t take him to dinner unless his niece put our names on the approved list. So I gave her my number and asked that the niece, Mary Bishop, call me. Ed was agitated, wanted to get out of there, and, I think, somewhat drugged.
Niece Mary Bishop called when we were at dinner – without Ed – and I didn’t take the call. I called her when we got home, introduced myself, and bluntly asked why Ed had been put in memory care. I pointed out that his memory is impeccable.”He wasn’t getting the care he needed in the assisted living facility.”
“Did you get a court order?” I asked.
“I don’t need one. I have power of attorney. His doctors recommended it.”
Which doctors? I had previously asked Ed if he’d seen any memory doctors, he said no.
“Who’s paying for it?” I asked the niece.
“He is.” Then she got huffy, irritated. “I don’t have to talk to you about any of this.”
“Why can’t we take him out to dinner?”
“When he gets accustomed to where he is, then he can go out for dinner.”
“Accustomed to it? He’s in prison. And I think he’d been drugged.”
“No, they don’t drug memory care patients.”
“I’m going to recommend that Ed hire an attorney,” I told her, and hung up.
By the next morning, Ed’s phone was out of commission.Coincidence? I doubt it. So what’s really going on here?
The group talked about how we could get a burner phone into Ed. Then this evening, I ran across an article in the Miami Herald by Carol Marbin Miller and Linda Robertson called “A horror movie. Florida program that removes elder from their homes needs overhaul,lawmakers say.”
Here’s the link to the story.
I read it and sat down and started writing this. An elder abuse law firm that doesn’t return calls, a niece with power of attorney who isn’t honest about what’s going on, a system that allows this kind of thing to occur without any apparent oversight. There’s a lot wrong with this picture. And then there’s Ed, and a man in his early 80s who suddenly finds himself in a locked ward, not even allowed to step outside. And now he can’t even call. anyone.
