Rather than bore you with technical requirements when assessing whether your loved one needs care, you should consider whether the individual has a diagnosis or receives medical treatment that limits the individual’s ability to manage his/her own care or maintain himself or herself in their home independently. If he/she is unable to manage care independently, your loved one may need additional services – whether provided in home, or in a facility.

To meet the nursing home level of care requirement, the individual who needs assistance must be unable to manage three Activities of Daily Living (ADL). ADLs include: feeding, bathing, dressing, walking, transferring, and continence.  Many of our clients may have sufficient needs, but are still able to manage their ADLs. As a result, a nursing home is not a suitable placement.

When individuals are able to manage the majority of their ADLs, but are unable to perform Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), such as cooking, driving, shopping, managing finances, managing medication, cleaning, etc., we recommend less restrictive care options. Many clients who have some impairment can sufficiently live independently, or remain in their home with minimal assistance. Other clients may need to be placed into a more structured environment for more intensive oversight.

Whether your loved one needs immediate care, is in a financial crisis, or whether your loved one should start planning in light of possible long-term care needs down the road, we can help assess care options and financing.

Ask Kit Kat – The Lowly Vole

Hook Law Center:  Kit Kat, what can you tell us about voles?

Kit Kat:  Well, it turns out a lot. I’ve written previously on moles and mice, but the prairie vole it turns out has a lot to offer, too, in the way of contributing to scientific research and its applicability to humans. Researchers at the University of Virginia have chosen them as research subjects, because they are a lot like humans with regard to mating and parenting. The prairie vole breeds year round and can have as many as 4 pups per litter. They are found in the central part of the United States from New Mexico to Ohio and West Virginia. They are small and never weigh more than 3 ounces!

Anyway, there is a relatively new field in science call behavioral epigenetics in which cell changes from environmental factors are examined. The cell itself does not really change, but how it reacts can change depending on things that happen to it. Additionally, some scientists believe that these cell reactions can be passed down to future generations. ‘Offspring of low-care parents (voles) become low-care parents themselves, and this alters the epigenome of the next generation of offspring,’ says Kelly Wroblewski (UVA Grad ’20). It happens through a process called methylation, in which the effectiveness of the gene is reduced. In the case of prairie voles, they found that voles with parents who spent little time with them had more trouble bonding with potential mates and their own offspring. The implication for humans is that offspring of parents with mental health weaknesses such as depression or victims of trauma could be pass their impaired coping mechanisms down through the generations.

More research needs to be done, but it is intriguing that this humble creature is very useful to humans in their quest to understand how emotions and their resulting behaviors can be passed down to offspring, just as much as a predisposition to acquire certain physical ailments.

(“What can voles tell us about ourselves,” UVA Magazine, Fall 2016, p. 45)

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Hook Law Center encourages you to share this newsletter with anyone who is interested in issues pertaining to the elderly, the disabled and their advocates. The information in this newsletter may be copied and distributed, without charge and without permission, but with appropriate citation to Hook Law Center, P.C. If you are interested in a free subscription to the Hook Law Center News, then please telephone us at 757-399-7506, e-mail us at mail@hooklawcenter.com or fax us at 757-397-1267.The post Determining the Appropriate Level of Care first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]> http://www.seonewswire.net/2014/05/round-one-in-vaginal-mesh-lawsuits-goes-to-johnson-johnson/ Mon, 05 May 2014 16:26:25 +0000 http://www.seonewswire.net/2014/05/round-one-in-vaginal-mesh-lawsuits-goes-to-johnson-johnson/ Big Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson has won its first vaginal mesh implant case, prevailing over a plaintiff who alleged the device was defective. The court found for the defendant in Charleston, West Virginia, where the plaintiff claimed that a…

The sheer scale of this litigation is astounding; more than 30,000 medical negligence and defective product lawsuits have been filed against six U.S. mesh makers. Most of the cases allege that the manufacturers knew, or should have known, of the devastating and dangerous side effects of the mesh they produced.

The first four cases against Boston Scientific are to serve as bellwether cases, dealing with the Pinnacle transvaginal mesh and Obtryx mesh that caused complications that included, but were not limited to, internal injuries, infections, severe pain and erosion of the mesh.

Despite the lawsuits in progress and those still to be filed, Boston Scientific has stated that the mesh products are still an important treatment option. No doubt the 30,000 women who suffered severe consequences as a result of such implants feel otherwise.

Some sources have indicated that Boston Scientific is considering settlement talks, but most facts indicate that such a decision is many months from consideration. However, it may be that the recent C.R. Bard Inc. case that found the company liable for $2,000,000 or Ethicon’s $11,000,000 liability in another may eventually motivate Boston Scientific to propose out-of-court settlements.

Lee, Gober and Reyna – If you need a personal injury lawyer or help with an auto accident, motorcycle accident, wrongful death, or burn injury case, contact Lee, Gober and Reyna by visiting http://www.lgrlawfirm.com or calling 512.478.8080

In the 2008 Garza case, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a verdict awarding millions of dollars to Hidalgo County landowners who claimed that hydraulic fracturing on neighboring property had caused drainage of their underground minerals to an adjacent well. The Texas high court ruled that the rule of capture applied, protecting drillers from such claims as long as they followed the law and did not, for instance, drill a slanted well underneath neighboring property.

Some legal observers have argued that in cases of hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” drainage is nearly inevitable and the rule of capture should not apply. The Texas Supreme Court said in the Garza case that the remedy for landowners worried about drainage is to dig their own well. Some landowners have said that this is not always practical.

Texas law prohibits drilling close to a neighbor’s property line, but drillers may apply to the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates drilling, for what is known as a Rule 37 exception. According to an analysis by the Texas Tech Law Review, such exceptions can result in drillers capturing hydrocarbons from underneath adjacent property, with landowners receiving no compensation.

Despite criticism of the rule of capture, landowners should be aware that it is still the law in Texas.

Gregory D. Jordan is an Oil and Gas lawyer in Austin. To learn more, visit http://www.theaustintriallawyer.com or call 512-419-0684.

A recent case in West Virginia resulted in a decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court that the ex-wife of a man who lost his life in a motorcycle accident was not entitled to any proceeds from his estate.

As it turned out, the decedent’s estate was able to negotiate $300,000 on a successful wrongful death lawsuit. All of it was deemed to be paid to the man’s estate, for eventual dispersal to his heirs. The will did not make it to probate, because the man’s ex-wife said he owed her at least $50,000 for unpaid child support.

The issue was not that the man was not paying his support. He had started paying the required monthly amount in 2003. At the time he died, the children were adults and he had no further obligations to support them.

The language of the wrongful death statute in West Virginia states only an individual who was financially dependent on the deceased could file a claim to any proceeds from the estate, and that included someone who was not a relative of the deceased.

In this instance, the court decided the ex-wife was not a relative and furthermore, was not financially dependent on the man. She sent any money she did get from him in the form of child support to her adult children, keeping none back for herself. In short, the court indicated she did not need the money and therefore was not entitled to a share of the wrongful death proceeds.

In filing a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas, the plaintiff needs to know precisely what rules may apply to them. Without a clear understanding of how the Texas statute reads, the family may be surprised to find out that proceeds may have to be divided in a certain manner.

Generally, in Texas, wrongful death claims may only be brought by the surviving spouse, children and parents of the deceased. Additionally, some claims may belong to the deceased’s estate. But this West Virginia case is an example of some of the nuances that make pursuing claims so difficult.

Getting a settlement is only half the battle and you need a competent Austin wrongful death lawyer to guide you through the process.

Perlmutter & Schuelke, LLP is one of the premier trial firms in Austin Texas. Contact a wrongful death attorney by calling 512-476-4944 or learn more at http://www.civtrial.com/.

The program is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and as the NPR series “Unfit For Work” described, its payroll, after sharp growth in recent years, now numbers over 14 million. This growth is in spite of medical advances and laws banning employment discrimination based on disability.

NPR reporter Chana Joffe-Walt found that declining real wages, a stagnant economy, and limited employment opportunities create powerful incentives for disabled workers to seek SSDI. She visited Hale County, Alabama, where nearly a quarter of working-age adults are SSDI beneficiaries. There, openings for jobs not requiring physical labor are almost completely unattainable for many due to a lack of education. The states with the highest percentages of disability beneficiaries are also the states with the lowest percentages of college-educated population, including West Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Joffey-Walt also visited the family of a 10-year-old boy with a learning disability in the Bronx. That disability makes him eligible for $700 per month in Social Security, the family’s primary source of income. If Jahleel were to completely overcome his disability and excel in his education, it would threaten his family’s livelihood. The story illustrated the conflicting motivations some families with benefit income struggle with.

A group of eight former Social Security Administration (SSA) commissioners wrote an open letter to the public responding to the NPR story. The commissioners pointed out that analysts at the SSA had predicted the current uptrend in SSDI’s growth for decades. Two demographic swells combine to account for the majority of the growth in SSDI: the baby boom and the influx of women into the American workforce in the 1970s and 1980s. These groups are now entering their high-disability years.

The letter added that the growth in children receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is due to the nationwide growth in poverty. Less than four percent of low-income children receive SSI benefits – a figure that has held steady, according to the commissioners.

Advocacy group the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CDC) also published an open letter shortly after the story aired. They called attention to the strictness of the eligibility requirements, saying only about 40 percent of adult applicants are approved.

SSDI ensures the livelihood of millions of Americans, but has swelled at an eyebrow-raising rate in recent years. Congress may reform the program in the coming years to help those on the margin remain gainfully employed. But they must take care to ensure the economic security of the most vulnerable Americans.

Alston & Baker, an Affiliation of Professional Associations: The Law Office of Robert C. Alston, Esq., P.A. and The Law Office of Marcie L. Baker, Esq., P.A. To contact a social security attorney call 1.888.500.5245 or visit http://www.alstonbakerlaw.com.