Protect Your Parents from Abuse While Theyre Still Living at Home

In his new book Is Your Parent in Good Hands?, Ed Carnot, an experienced attorney, tells his fathers tragic story of financial and emotional abuse by a home health care provider and provides his expert advice on how you can protect your own elderly parents.

(PRWEB) January 21, 2004 --Each chapter in this sad saga is followed by an abbreviated review of community, legal, residential, healthcare, and financial resources to help prevent elder abuse. Financial exploitation of older adults, especially those with memory loss, is all to common but rarely dealt with in the consumer-aging literature....this book should serve as a cautionary tale for adult children of older parents."
- Library Journal, October 15, 2003

During my years in Congress, the issue of senior abuse became ever more prevalent as the numbers of seniors increases in our aging society. With families scattered across the country, those who care for them from afar are never certain that their loved one is receiving the care they deserve. Ed Carnot, who spent many years as a counselor and board member of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, has written in Is Your Parent in Good Hands a compelling personal story of his own fathers abuse by a 'trusted caregiver and has provided a wealth of information that others can use to protect their parents from such circumstances."
- The Honorable Constance A. Morella, U.S. Congress, R-Md, retired

Is Your Parent in Good Hands? Protecting Your Aging Parent from Financial Abuse and Neglect
Edward Carnot, Esq.
November 2003 ISBN 1-892123-37-9 $18.95
Paper, 6 x 9, 275 p.p.

Dulles, VA: Today an estimated 30 million Americans are struggling with the healthcare issues of elderly parents----many of them from far away. How can we be sure our parents are being well cared for while theyre still living at home? How can we protect them from abuse? In "Is Your Parent in Good Hands?," attorney Edward Carnot offers sound practical advice on these troubling issues----based on his personal and professional experience.

Carnot tells the compelling story of his own battle against the unscrupulous caregiver of his elderly father, the inability of the legal system to protect him, and the resulting chaos that turned his family inside out and ultimately threatened the dignity and independence his father so tenaciously clung to. Though his story has a sad ending, Carnot discovered much that can help others in their quest to protect their aging loved ones. Now he offers expert advice for both recognizing financial exploitation and abuse and the many ways abuse can be prevented.

Each chapter includes easy-to-understand vital information on topics ranging from the need for legal documents, such as power of attorney for healthcare, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, and living wills; guardianships, working with officials, police, and the district attorney; to health insurance issues, like the difference between Medicare, Medigap, and long-term care insurance, choosing a residential care facility, including how to determine whether to hire a nurse or private caregiver and when to use an agency; recognizing depression and loneliness; the differences among mental health professionals; senior centers; estate planning issues like reverse mortgages; to planning for long-term care as a family----everything you need to care for and protect your elderly parents----from nearby or faraway. The book will help everyone who has an aging parent or close relative because the story is compelling, the reader can easily identify with the characters, and the self-help guidelines are comprehensive, practical and immediately usable.

Edward J. Carnot became an expert on elder care and now consults to major organizations in this field. He has practiced law for almost thirty years. As the former managing partner of a law firm located outside of Washington, D.C., he has been co-lead counsel on class action lawsuits involving healthcare issues against insurance companies, some of which were funded in part by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. For many years he provided pro bono service as Counselor and member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, one of the largest such facilities in the country. He is a frequent speaker on techniques for protecting the elderly from abuse, as well as asset protection strategies. Edward and his wife of 32 years, Pamela, and his two dogs moved to La Jolla, California in 2001, where he continues his law practice helping to protect the elderly from abuse. He is currently working on another book involving insurance and healthcare issues. He is a partner in the law firm of Karp Frosh Lapidus Wigodsky & Norwind, P.A.
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