The mysterious and little understood system called guardianship, or conservatorship, burst into the public consciousness in 2021 with the case of pop star Britney Spears. After living under court-ordered restrictions for nearly fourteen years, Spears finally spoke out about her plight: she had been stripped of her civil rights, forced to work, involuntarily medicated, denied the right to freely travel or spend the money she earned, and rejected when she wanted to marry and have a baby.
Britney isn’t the only adult who has lost crucial rights through the guardianship system. An estimated 1.5 and 2 million Americans are currently living under similar court-mandated circumstances. Many of these arrangements for so-called “wards of the court” work out well. But after a yearslong study of the system, author Diane Dimond discovered the number of predatory players appointed by the court to control the life and finances of wards is astounding, and the number of victims is staggering. As Dimond writes in We’re Here to Help, “Consider that every year new guardianships and conservatorships place more than $50 billion under the control of others, and with the average case lasting about six years. . . . Informed critics estimate that predatory players illegally divert multiple billions of dollars from this monstrous cache of money each year.”
Dimond insists that “the sheer numbers of these abusive cases—reported by loving family members and worried friends across the United States—screams for attention to be paid.”

We’re Here to Help reveals that:
• Anyone can file a simple petition with a state court asking that a guardianship be established. Petitioners can be family members, angry business associates, neighbors, former lovers, or total strangers.
• Those at risk include young people with inheritances; individuals who’ve won sizeable workman’s comp or medical malpractice settlements; veterans with attractive pension payouts; and victims of mental illness or brain injuries who, even after they recover, find it nearly impossible to break free from the system.
• Divorce attorneys in contested cases have counselled male clients to petition for guardianship of their uncooperative wives—and judges have complied. The cases highlighted in the book were found in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Florida.
• Women are most affected by guardianship. As elderly widows they become ripe for conscription and their caregivers are most often their daughters, not their sons.
• Guardians give presentations at senior centers and nursing homes urging audience members not to saddle their children with caretaking responsibilities. Guardians may share contact information for those interested with estate and elder law attorneys, who pursue court ordered guardianships.
• Lawyers, guardians, and conservators operating in the guardianship field can charge between $250 and $600 an hour for tasks as mundane as opening mail, paying bills, or answering an email. They can hire any number of assistants, including financial advisors, in-home health care, cooks, landscapers, and personal shoppers. The ward’s estate pays for everything.
• Jurists often allow the guardian to ignore a ward’s will, power of attorney, and other legal documents.
• While some states are enacting reform bills to regulate the current system, there have been no proposals to overhaul it. Congress has known about guardianship’s systemic problems for nearly half a century, but no definitive legislation to curb the exploitation has ever been passed.
By highlighting a multitude of real-life stories, We’re Here to Help explains this secretive process step-by-step. Readers will come to understand how family squabbles over what to do with an at-risk relative can spiral into a complicated nightmare of unwanted court intervention.
Dimond includes chapters about alternative programs a judge could establish, and protective legal steps readers can take to help safeguard their families.

Five Questions for Diane Dimond
Qz; What is guardianship and why write a book about it? Guardianship, or conservatorship, is a system that was set up in the late 1800s and it was designed so that any citizen who couldn’t care for themselves got help from the state.
Traditionally, it protected elderly people with dementia or those with profound physical or intellectual disabilities and had no family to care for them. They became a “wards of the court.” But I discovered the system has morphed over the years into something almost sinister. Judges routinely declare all sorts of people as “incapacitated” and assign strangers—lawyers and guardians—to take control of wards’ personal lives and money. These appointees have enormous power because once a person is declared “incapacitated” they lose all their civil rights. Realize, wards can’t hire a lawyer, vote, write a check, or decide where to live or travel. They can be isolated from loved ones and, most shockingly, overmedicated to keep them compliant. Guardianships or conservatorships must be approved by a judge.
Q: Do “petitions for guardianship” state why the person in question needs to be guardianized?
Yes, but frequently a judge accepts whatever claims a lawyer has made in the petition. These might be exaggerations or outright lies; I found that’s not uncommon in these petitions. But these judges don’t have the staff or the time to vet the contents. They take the word of the officer-of-the-court and approve the guardianship. And, once a person is caught up in the system it’s very expensive—and almost impossible for their family to get them out. Court appointees love the fight because it means more time in court and more hourly fees they can charge.
Q: You’ve been writing about abusive guardianships since 2015. There have been other print and TV exposés about it. Why is it that a majority of the public doesn’t know about this system?
Because most guardianship/conservatorship proceedings are conducted in secret. The court and the players—the lawyers, the guardians, and all the rest—say the outside world cannot be privy to the inner workings because of federal HIPAA laws that protect the privacy of a person’s medical information. There have been some great exposes written and aired on individual horror stories—but never a big-picture, in-depth investigative look at the system as a whole.

Q: How did you obtain such detailed information about this secretive system?
In short, very brave family members came forward—at the risk of contempt-of-court charges and hefty fines—to tell me what their loved ones were going through. They shared horror stories about exploitive and abusive guardians: wards being isolated from the family or forcibly overmedicated, outright theft, even allegations of physical and sexual abuse. Most importantly, these relatives provided me with court documents to back up their allegations. And then they steered me to other families that had similar stories to tell. Throughout the book, you emphasize the role judges play within this system. Why should judges bear special scrutiny? To my mind, the ultimate responsibility for these obvious abuses begins and ends with the judge who ordered the guardianship in the first place. If judges need more training to truly understand what can happen after they establish a guardianship, or more money and staff to get the job done in a compassionate way, then their state legislature needs to step up. If a judge is found to be taking campaign contributions from those they appoint to these very profitable positions (and yes, I discovered that has happened), then that cash flow should be made illegal. If there are repeated complaints against a particular judge, then the state judicial board needs to seriously investigate and consider removing that judge. Think of it this way: most people plan where they want to live, travel, and how to spend their retirement. One judge shouldn’t be able to take all that away under the guise of “protection.” Some people really do need help living their life, but that doesn’t mean they should lose their civil rights or be subjected to humiliating and even criminal behavior.

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There was a bird who lived in a desert, very sick, no feathers, nothing to eat and drink, no shelter to live in. One day a dove was passing by, so the sick unhappy bird stopped the dove and inquired “where are you going?” it replied ” I am going to heaven”.

So the sick bird said “please find out for me, when my suffering will come to an end?” The dove said, “sure, I will.” and bid a good bye to the sick bird. The dove reached heaven and shared the message of the sick bird with the angel incharge at the entrance gate.

The angel said, “For the next seven years of its life the bird has to suffer like this, no happiness till then.”

The dove said, “When the sick bird hears this he will get disheartened. could you suggest any solution for this.”

The Angel replied, “Tell him to recite this verse *”Thank you God for everything.”* The dove on meeting the sick bird again, delivered the message of the angel to it .

After seven days the dove was again passing by and saw that bird was very happy, feathers grew on his body, a small plant grew up in the desert area, a small pond of water was also there, the bird was singing and dancing cheerfully. The dove was astonished. The Angel had said that there would be no happiness for the bird for the next seven years. With this question in mind the dove went to visit the angel at heaven’s gate.

The dove put forth his query to the Angel. The Angel replied, “yes it is true there was no happiness for the bird for seven years but because the bird was reciting the verse *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”* in every situation, his life changed.

When the bird fell down on the hot sand it said *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”*

When it could not fly it said, *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”*

When it was thirsty and there was no water around, it said, *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”*

Whatever the situation, the bird kept on repeating, *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”* and therefore the seven years got dissolved in seven days.

When I heard this story, I felt a tremendous shift in my way of feeling, thinking, accepting and viewing life

I adopted this verse in my life. WHATEVER the situation I faced I started reciting this verse *”THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”.* It helped me to shift my view from what I did not have to what I have in my life.

For instance; if my head aches I THANK GOD that the rest of my body is completely fine and healthy and I notice that the headache does not bother me at all.

In the same manner I started using this verse in my relationships (whether family, friends, neighbors, colleagues ) finances, social life, business and everything with which I can relate. I shared this story with everyone I came in touch with and it brought a great shift in their behaviour too.

This simple verse really had a deep impact on my life, I started feeling how blessed I am, how happy I am, how good life is.

The purpose of sharing this message is to make all of us aware of how powerful the *“ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE”* is. It can reshape our lives…!!!

Lets recite this verse continuously to experience the shift in our life.

So be grateful, and see the change in your attitude.

_*Be humble, and you will never stumble.*_

*- REMEMBER! “THANK YOU GOD FOR EVERYTHING”*

LOVE ALL……. SERVE ALL

#gratitude #heaven #angel #gate #god #attitude #thank #you #stumble #love #family #friends #neighbors #colleagues #relationships

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After almost 4 and 1/2 years Amanda decided that her job here was done. She was hospitalized with pneumonia and seizures on March 13, 2013, while her parents were in Hawaii on vacation. On March 23, Amanda did not want to be poked and squeezed anymore. She was done and did not want any type of medicine or food. There was a family meeting on March 24 and Amanda’s dad Jim Brownell SIGNED the POST form to not recessitate or intibate. She returned to her LSA – Baywood HOME (since June 2010) on 3/27/13. Then on April 1, 2013 Amanda spent her last 16 days of life at home with her parents, family, friends and dogs (Jack Skellington Sparrow and Spencer Spot Brownell) .

Amanda’s Mother, Ann Solorio Brownell has shared the PAIN of Amanda’s story, more than 1,000 times in front of more than 50,000 people, to educate everyone about these serious issues of suicide, bullying, and self-harm while spreading the message of LOVE for all people and all living things.

We are parents, grandparents, caregivers, siblings, friends, teachers, neighbors, social workers, school administrators, and students.

You are invited to stand against ALL forms of bullying by taking this simple pledge, to join as an Amanda Network Member:

“I pledge to not allow bullying in my presence.
If I don’t report it, I am just as guilty.”

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Portland, 2023. After three years of living through earthquakes, volcanoes, plagues, looting, violence, starvation, and death, Sophie Cohen has almost made peace with her new normal. Three years after the Yellowstone Caldera smothered the world in ash, but strangely spared the Northwest U.S., Sophie has gotten used to inch-long hair (for lice prevention), termite soup for dinner (despite nightly dreams of chocolate éclairs), teenagers who actually read (if they want entertainment), and neighbors who are actually neighborly (in order to survive). What will rock Sophie’s world at the end of the world is discovering her own calling as a woman to be reckoned with—even though it takes being hit by a few earth-shattering surprises and hunted down by a power-crazed maniac.
In her gripping and funny (seriously) novel, ETIQUETTE FOR AN APOCALYPSE (May 2012; Brackets Press; $14.00; ISBN: 978-0-9848930-0-3), Anne Mendel draws readers into a world filled with dangers, disasters, and dysfunction. Told in Sophie’s voice, with a keen sense of dark humor, it is a thrilling story of survival. In spite of all the hardships and horrors, it is also a story of hope; even in a world without fossil fuels or iPhones or chocolate éclairs can be.

“A relative Garden of Eden, which just happens to be in Hell…” That’s how Sophie describes the eleventh-floor walkup she now calls home—a penthouse owned by her harebrained, judgmental mother, LuLu (who relishes famine as a diet aid and trains killer pit bulls she calls BooBoo and Cutie). At home, Sophie rarely sees her workaholic doctor husband, Bertrand, (but that’s an old normal) and rarely talks to her moody 13-year-old daughter, Sasha. When she’s not pinning for radishes and worms (an excellent protein source), Sophie works as drug dealer with her brainy, socially deficit brother, producing antibiotics and painkillers. Her life takes a sharp turn towards stranger and more dangerous territory after the fateful evening Bertrand whispers, “Women are getting their hearts cut out.”
Keeping the suspense and tension mounting, ETIQUETTE FOR AN APOCALYPSE follows Sophie and Bertrand as they set out to hunt down a serial killer targeting lovely young prostitutes. While undercover at a whorehouse called Camelot, the sleuthing partners get wind of a looming war between a local group of vigilantes and a powerful organized crime circle, known as the Knights of the Round Table. After getting badly beaten for snooping around, Bertrand sticks to what he does best—doctoring. As a solo act, Sophie audaciously steps into the role of becoming a spy-master to save her family, her community, and maybe even the known world. To her amazement, she finds strong allies in not only the condo’s resident and psychic, Athena Wonder, but also in two women she underestimated: her mother and her daughter. Beneath her shallow surface, LuLu is a font of wisdom—about powerful men and their machinations. And although she still seems like a vulnerable little girl, Sasha is fast emerging into a woman with a mind of her own—and the determination to stand up and fight for justice.
Soon, Sophie becomes an instrumental player in an increasingly complex and violent war over control of warehouses stocked with food and other staples thought non-existent (Nutella and toilet paper, among them) and a tiny, hidden treasure much more valuable than gold. Before reaching the final round of negotiations (which may only be the beginning), Sophie comes face to face with a sadistic, delusional lunatic who believes he is King Arthur, destined to rule what’s left of the world. How our heroine uses creative thinking and mothering skills, combined with ferocious courage, to outwit a monster will have readers gasping…and cheering.
In the end, Sophie gains a new respect and love for her mother, a new appreciation for her daughter, rekindled passion and deeper commitment in her marriage. Driven by intriguing and complicated characters, filled with practical tips for preparing for the ultimate worst-case scenario, and written with humor, grit, and heart, ETIQUETTE FOR AN APOCALYPSE makes the end of the world both much more real and less terrifying. To quote the MidWest Book Review, “This is really a great story, one that grabs you and keeps you until the end, or is it the end?”

“A page-turning thriller that is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious.”
–Marc Acito, Commentator, NPR’s All Things Considered

“An instant cult classic.”
–Win McCormack, TinHouse Editor in Chief

About the Author
ANNE MENDEL grew up in Arkansas and actually attended Miss Ashleigh’s Charm school. She learned nothing about dealing with disasters (unless breaking a high heel is a disaster).
Before she began writing full time, she was a community organizer. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband. Mendel’s two sons are in college. Her muse is her dog, Humphrey.

Ann is a very funny woman. And funny is Good News! Paul

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SAVVY SHOPPING TIPS FOR STRETCHING YOUR HOLIDAY BUDGET

Americas Most Trusted Mom Expert, Stacy DeBroff, Shares her Tips for How to Survive and Thrive During the Rush of the Holiday Shopping Season! Its the most wonderful time of the year, the happiest season of all and a time to try to stay sane in the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping! As our holiday shopping lists grow longer and longer, everyone is looking for a way to stretch their dollars and make the most of our holiday budgets. With family members, teachers, neighbors, co-workers and friends to shop for, how can we still buy quality gifts for everyone on our list?

Mom Expert Stacy DeBroff has mastered how to shop for the holidays stress-free and still manage to get thoughtful gifts everyone will appreciate. Stacy has a plethora of tips to help us stay prepared and organized so we can manage our holiday shopping and still give wonderful gifts to all of our loved ones. Holiday Shopping Tips Create a master gift list prior to the holiday season so no one gets forgotten. Keep this list on hand to jog your memory! Also, add in details such as sizes or wish-list items for different family members. Call ahead if theres a particular hot gift youre looking for, like the latest kids toys, to make sure its in stock. Chip in together for big ticket items. Group gifting has become one of the latest shopping trends, especially as the holiday season is upon us. In fact, 83 percent of women and 75 percent of men say theyve participated in group gifting and plan to do so again this holiday season. Sears offers GiveTogether a great online tool so you can gather together with friends and family to share in the cost of a great gift. Keep a supply of hostess gifts. Whether chocolate covered pretzels or bottles of wine with ribbon wrapping; you never know when it will come in handy! Start early! Nothings worse than a rush to the mall and fighting traffic and crowds for last minute gifts. Stock up. When you find gifts you really like, consider giving that same gift to more than one person. Buy several, wrap them right away, and store them until the time of gift giving comes around. For more information visit: http://www.sears.com

About Stacy DeBroff: Stacy DeBroff, a.k.a. Americas Most Trusted Mom Expert, is a nationally acclaimed parenting expert, best-selling author, regular national TV show guest and CEO of Mom Central Consulting, the leading national social media agency specializing in moms. Heralded as a parenting guru by the Wall Street Journal, DeBroffs Mom Central is a company devoted to providing savvy advice to simplify and enrich the lives of busy moms and their families. Having authored four best-selling parenting books, including The Mom Book Goes to School, The Mom Book: 4,278 Tips for Moms, Sign Me Up! The Parent’s Complete Guide to Sports, Activities, and Extracurriculars, and Mom Central: The Ultimate Family Organizer, she appears regularly as a parenting expert on TV, including NBCs Today Show, CNN, The View, Tyra Banks Show, CBS Early Show, Daily Buzz, Mike and Juliet, Fox & Friends and the Rachael Ray Show. She lives with her husband Ron, and happily engages in imperfect parenting of their two teens, Kyle and Brooks, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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