Update:
For nearly a year, I've followed the case of a senior who requested advocacy when she began to be abused severely. The Foundation representative refused to help, claiming they could not advocate for the senior. The Foundation had previously advocated in related situations.
When the senior asked again months later after severe ongoing losses, the Foundation once again refused, saying that they could not help for "legal reasons."
Both times, the senior asked for privacy. She did not want her private information or the fact that she asked for help to be shared with her abuser or anyone. The Foundation assured her that they would not share her information or discuss her with anyone outside the Foundation.
However, multiple people in a position to know have indicated that the Foundation directly communicated with the abuser about the victim and what she said. The abuser deftly convinced the Foundation that the victim was "crazy" and not speaking the truth. The abuser also did this both publicly and privately, aggressively targeting any possible witnesses and using their personal associates to discredit the victim on social media. Multiple people have indicated that the person at the Foundation communicating the private information to the abuser is "close" with the abuser.
Now, nearly a year after the victim's nightmare started, several other seniors and vulnerable people have been seriously affected by the actions of the abuser. I am only now hearing that the person who divulged the senior's private information to the abuser is "starting to" realize that the abuser is not what they claim. I cannot say whether the others would have been spared their suffering, but I can say that the person who seems to have suffered most lost everything, including nearly a year of income, her health, respect in the community to some degree, and trust in the Foundation. She tells about the last time she talked to them. They put her on speakerphone without her permission. She suspects the person who violated her privacy with the abuser was in the room, but she doesn't know who it was. Why would the Foundation treat a client like that?
When people being paid to advocate for vulnerable people violate that trust based on their own judgment rather than the laws and regulations that apply, they put themselves above the law, and that in itself is abuse. It leads to more abuse.
The Foundation needs to begin taking full responsibility for the actions of each of its employees. I recommend that the board engage an impartial outside agency to conduct an anonymous survey of all clients over the past few years, with an option to elaborate with full confidentiality. Only with full accountability will the Foundation avoid supporting abuse by declining to advocate for vulnerable people and sharing their private information with their abusers.
More people have been affected by this problem than one might imagine, but the people affected feel they have no voice because nobody is listening.
I would like to see the Foundation eliminate these ongoing problems in order to protect and preserve the essential functions that they provide to the many vulnerable people in Fallbrook. It's worth the pain of doing so. read more
