Retirement community sued for denying woman right to hire personal attendant
Shortly before her 80th birthday, Blanche W. Bell, a resident of the Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community in Charleston, SC, started needing help with things like bathing and getting in and out of her wheelchair. Using her own money, she hired some personal care attendants to assist her in her apartment at Bishop Gadsden. She loves the retirement community, she says -- and wants to remain part of it.
When Bishop Gadsden officials found out about her attendants, they told Mrs. Bell that she must move into its on-campus nursing home or leave the retirement community altogether. They said their decision was based on their policies that ban long-term use of personal care attendants in their cottages and apartments. The policies, according to Charleston, SC attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson, purport to give Bishop Gadsden unilateral authority to determine where residents should be "placed."
The full story at Ragged Edge.
Update: More media coverage. (Use bugmenot.com to bypass registration.)
3 comments:
Wow.
OK, let me get this straight - they're denying her use of a PCA based on their policy that bars long-term use of PCA's. Fine, well and good A = A. What about the problem that the policy seems insane? I've worked as a PCA in facilities similar to this one - there's no reason to bar them in toto.
Tapetum
It simply seems to make good common sense that if one has the means to maintain their highest level of socialization and independence for as long as possible, policies like this should not be there to bar them from doing so.
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