We received a telephone call today from two Social Workers from Mass General Hospital, who work in the section 12 area of Mass General.
They called to say Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett could be released to his home as of Monday if his family agreed to their terms but this retired Episcopal priest could not be released in time to celebrate Easter with his family because “people do better if they are released on a Monday instead of at the end of the week.” His religion and religious status would not make a difference.
First – we need to say he was admitted to Mass General on March 3rd not for health reasons but because of a section 12 charge filed against him by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. This charge was filed against a man they had not met, had not evaluated, whose home they had not assessed, with no program in place that had been violated. Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services had no contact with Dr. Bennett at all.
He was discharged on March 4th about 3:30am because there was no reason to keep him and there was no reason even for the charge to have been filed against him.
In spite of that, another section 12 charge was filed against him on March 6th – again not for health reasons, and again by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services.
He was discharged from that first section 12 just two days prior to the same charge being pressed against him. He was released because Mass General found no reason to hold him. He was released with his vitals in the normal range, no medicines prescribed and the question unanswered as to why he was “arrested” to be so incarcerated because he did not fit any part of the profile of those for whom the section 12 was created. Especially those who were picked up by the police and forced by the police into the hospital on such a charge. it was an extremely demeaning, disgraceful, disrespectful and racist action against a well respected, accomplished, highly educated African American man who accomplished much in his life and had never been associated with the drugs, alcohol, psychotic breaks associated with such a charge. Nor had he ever been considered a threat to society or to himself which is also a part of the section12.
This second time around charge filed against Dr. Bennett on March 6th which Attorney James O’Sullivan had gone to Court to get – was combined with a “Protective Order” to put with the section 12 to make sure Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett would not get out of the hospital, but would be retained in the hospital indefinitely because whoever controlled the Protective Order controlled Dr. Bennett’s freedom and that was clearly what Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services intended and had done in concert with Attorney O’Sullivan.
Before this happened, Dr. Bennett had been in Mass General for brain surgery which was very successful. His recovery was amazing and witnessed by many people – some of whom have given us sworn statements as to what they observed of Dr. Bennett over the few days he had of freedom from the hospital after the surgery. Those statements talk about his walking around his neighborhood, talking to friends, laughing and joking with those he passed who knew him and more.
In spite of that, Somerville Cambridge Elder Services went after this family upon his release. It was elder abuse on steroids. Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective services did not know Dr. Bennett – had not met him – no psychologist from their group examined him – they did not visit his home to do an assessment if they had legitimate concerns – nothing. They just sent the police (8 white policemen – five or six EMT’s, police cars all over his street, a hospital gurney on the sidewalk flanked by two EMT’s, two ambulances in the middle of the block) all of whom were there to pick up this African American man and forcibly put him in the hospital in the part of the hospital where such out of control people were kept. If Dr. Bennett objected, the police claimed they had the authority to break down his front door; go through the house to search for him wherever that took them and whatever damage they did in the process would not be their fault nor responsibility; and if he objected and refused they were to carry him out. That produced quite a bit of theatre in the neighborhood – people were running from the river to see what was happening, neighbors came out of their homes, people passing by stopped to see what this was all about and the police pushed into Dr. Bennett’s home and swarmed all over the house. Dr. Bennett was sitting in his dining room through all of this.
That kind of authority was given to the police over a man about a section 12 on March 6th – a man who had been taken to Mass General on a section 12 on March 3rd and released on March 4th because there was no reason to keep him. In other words the filing and forcing of a man from his home into the hospital was done on what we believe was a trumped up charge to attempt to gain control over the man and his assets.
The attempt at his assets is clear when you see he was described to the Court under oath as being “indigent” – which he is not. And then you see Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services attempting to force his family to get Mass Health whether they qualified for it or not with Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services using that instead of any other insurance the family may have.
The history of the relationship between the Elder Services Group and Mass Health is highly suspicious and needs to be investigated. Is it a means for those who need such to have Health Insurance coverage subsidized by the state and/or does it have a secondary use as a means to identify and strip away the assets of some of those forced to use Mass Health even though they don’t qualify for and don’t need Mass health because they are adequately covered in other ways? With those who do not qualify not being given a choice, but are forced to apply for and use Mass Health.
It was also clear that this African American man was being attacked by Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services with the backing of Mass General because of his race – African American. It would not have happened if Dr. Bennett was white, especially this would not have happened to anyone in that Brattle Street neighborhood of Harvard Square where Dr. Bennett lives – when he is not being hauled out of his house by the police.
He has been kept at Mass General under the section 12 and a Protective Order for some 5 weeks now. He has been kept in bed or in the chair next to the bed. In an area 7 feet by 9 feet – no friends allowed to visit – no telephone calls put through – no family allowed to see him. Dr. Bennett’s space in that room for 2 1/2 of the five weeks and counting that he has been in Mass General – was about 1/4th of the room. Three days before his proposed release – Dr. Bennett was moved to the more spacious side of the room with wall to wall windows. That side of the room had been empty for days prior to that and no movement was made to move Dr. Bennett to the next bed releasing him from his 7 by 9 foot “cell”.
His wife could only see him 1/2 hour per day and then only with a Security Guard in the room. In actual fact, she was able to see him only three times in two and one half weeks. After that no one could visit because the hospital was closed to visitors because of the coronavirus. We have documented in other places the incredibly demeaning and disrespectful way she was treated which included a Security Guard threatening to physically throw her out of the hospital.
Five weeks later, Mass General is ready to discharge Dr. Bennett “sort of”. No one has ever said to any member of the family nor to anyone else we contacted why Dr. Bennett had been kept so incarcerated for five plus weeks.
Among the terms of his release, the “Protective Order” under which he was being kept would have to stay. That order accused his wife of abuse. The Social Workers, in the conversation with his wife said “we know you and Robert are devoted to one another so we know no harm will come to him. But the order accusing her of abuse stays.” They also said both ” they and Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services knew Dr. Bennett’s wife did not and had not abused him.” We have also seen letters from the lawyers saying the same thing. The ‘Protective Order”, however, claims something very different.
The “Protective Order” is one in which Attorney O”Sullivan asked the Court to invalidate Dr. Bennett’s then current Health Care Proxy which was created by Mass General Hospital naming his wife as his Health Care Proxy. That was created by Mass General after an investigation of Dr. Bennett’s Health Care Proxies by the person at Mass General who creates such proxies.
The Court went along with Attorney O’Sullivan in a hearing during which only one side was represented because the other side was not given notice. That hearing was one which would determine whether Robert Bennett would remain free or be “incarcerated” in the hospital or some other place. The fact that such a hearing even took place without notice of such being given to Dr. Bennett was a gross violation of Dr. Bennett’s rights, especially since he was able to say clearly what he wanted or did not want. We wonder how many other people are and have been in that same position and is this how Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services, along with other such groups and their attorneys function. That “Protective Order” invalidated what was then the legal Health Care Proxy and put in its place one which had previously been invalidated because it was not signed by Dr. Bennett; was not signed by him because he did not know of its existence; Dr. Bennett additionally did not want the person named in the “forged” Health Care Proxy as his Proxy.
When Dr. Bennett discovered such a Proxy existed he hired a probate attorney to make sure his wishes were definitely expressed and that the Health Care Proxy was properly signed and witnessed by two people who have known Dr. Bennett and his family for a few decades.
Unfortunately that Proxy had a typo in the last date – which in most places reflected the November 18, 2019 date on which it was created and signed, but in that one place – after Dr. Bennett’s signature and before the signature of the witnesses was November 18, 2018.
That was the reason Mass General stepped in to replace that with the one they created and they stepped in because they realized there was a conflict with two Health Care Proxies naming two different people as Dr. Bennett’s proxy and after talking to Dr. Bennett for a considerable time they also understood that Dr. Bennett had not known of the existence of the first Proxy and had not signed it although it showed a signature claiming to be Dr. Bennett’s.
There were other things in the Protective Order which were and are clearly not true. We cannot speak to the total of what is in the Protective Order because it was impounded and not available. We can only wonder why!
Mass General has now said it will send Dr. Bennett home on Monday April 14th, but that Protective Order must stand along with its forged Health Care Proxy, which they know is forged, have known its history since Dr. Bennett was discharged from Mass General Hospital on March 1st and they know there is a Heatlh Care Proxy created properly by Mass General and is in Dr. Bennett’s best interest.
There had been an ongoing demand that Dr. Bennett would not be released from Mass General until his family filed an application for Mass Health. That delayed Dr. Bennett’s release for quite some time.The demand was that if Dr. Bennett’s family did not fill out and accept Mass Health, Dr Bennett would not be released. Mass Health was the insurance Somerville Cambridge Protective Services was demanding be used. Even though they knew Dr. Bennett had other insurance which was more then adequate, to Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services that was not going to happen and Dr. Bennett would not be released unless his wife filled out the Mass Health application and that insurance be used.
Problem with that was Dr. Bennett did not qualify for Mass Health and already had more than adequate insurance with two insurance companies. No one could tell either Dr. Bennett nor his family as to why Mass Health needed to be added as a third insurance company. After conferring with people who knew about such things, Dr. Bennett’s family discovered they would be on the edge of insurance fraud depending upon how these insurances policies would be used.
From information and belief we have found that is a standard with Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services. They demand that their clients file an application for Mass Health and they were the ones making the demand that Dr. Bennett file for such in spite of the fact that they had checked and found he had adequate insurance without this extra policy. In spite of that Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services blocked Dr. Bennett’s release from Mass General because of this “glitch” and refused to allow him to be discharged from the hospital until that was done. We know that because we have seen the correspondence concerning such.
When Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services went to Court to get the Protective Order and the section 12 to keep Dr. Bennett in the hospital they claimed under oath that Dr. Bennett was “indigent”. We wondered at the time why that was done, especially since Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services knew better.
We wondered if this demand for Mass Health was being done to save face, until several people contacted us after we started circulating the Bettina Network Blog with articles about what was happening with Dr. Bennett.
People who contacted us had been through horrendous times with the same people. The demand that they have Mass Health was made and they acquiesced because they would do anything to get their family member home. Because of that when they were out from under the elder abuse they experienced under Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services and other such groups in the Commonwealth with the legal representation of Attorney James O’Sullivan, they discovered all of their property and possessions were gone.
There is something in Mass Health which demands that you give them permission to put liens against your property and they then move against you to enforce and collect on those liens and that left several people homeless and broke. For some, the threat of being so moved against led them to just give up their property and other assets. Other insurance policies – including the ones Dr. Bennett had – do not charge to you what Mass Health pays to the health providers and we think that is the case if you have Mass Health and it is given to you in spite of the fact that you do not qualify. If we are correct, that is why liens are filed on peoples’ property and why Mass Health and/or others are able to force the collection of such liens. If we are correct, then it becomes even clearer why the attack on Dr. Bennett and his family happened. All one has to so is to look at the home they own.
We wondered who then profited? The people contacting us didn’t know because they were not skilled in the law nor in the knowledge of how to follow up or attempt to prevent such and so they are a part of the quiet group who have suffered at the hands of Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services, among other such groups. One person who so contacted us was under the Boston group. He also lost everything – left the state – and will not put his foot across the Massachusetts State line. His story makes Dr. Bennett’s look small by comparison.
A second demand of the social workers at Mass General was that Dr. Bennett’s family accept the “program” they put in place as a condition for Dr. Bennett’s return home.
When Dr. Bennett was forced into the hospital by the police, he was in very good physical, mental and emotional shape, so they did not understand why an extensive program was now going to be put in place for his return home five/six weeks after having been in a medical/health institution which is supposed to be about improving your health.
None of Dr. Bennetts friends, family or associates had been able to see him over those five weeks so no one was able to tell just what kind of condition he was in. Only over this past week has his family been able to talk to him over the telephone.
The Mass General Social Workers and his “team” put in place a “Home Care” group of their choosing to go into Dr. Bennett’s home to take care of him for an indeterminate period of time.
Questions Dr. Bennett’s family had about those arrangements were not answered. They were told this group had been selected by Mass General and therefore were great. Dr. Bennett’s family was also told that in spite of the fact that they had their own resources for such and wanted to choose the people who would help with any care Dr. Bennett needed. They were told that was not possible.
Given the fact that when Dr. Bennett was discharged from Mass General and went to the rehab place Mass General recommended he found it was quarantined because of the flu. – Mass General’s track record with Dr. Bennett and his family was not great. But then this is an African American family so maybe the institutions choices are neither scrutinized nor made the way they would be for others.
We wanted to know why so many “home care” people were being put in place to go in and out of his home daily especially since his wife had kept to herself in their home, not allowed anyone in to make sure the home would be as safe as possible for Dr. Bennett’s return home, given the coronavirus threat. This new group being pushed on Dr. Bennett’s family seemed to be an opening of the door to the virus and inviting it and its relatives in to stay awhile and do its best damage to Dr. Bennett and his family.
When everyone else is being told to “shelter in place” to not go in and out of each others homes, etc. to be safe from this virus – why was this in and out of his home by several people on a daily basis being forced on Dr. Bennett’s family? Especially some six weeks down the road from his surgery from which he clearly had made a remarkable recovery in the days right after he left the hospital and before his incarceration at Mass General Hospital claiming two section 12’s in one week.
The answer was – they take the same precautions people working in Mass General take daily before going in and out of the hospital.
We checked on the company and this is what we found –
1. That is not true
2. Their reviews include the following –
Gail Hermann Shea reviewed Blissful Homecare — 1 star
March 11, 2017 · Awful..buyer beware…finding urine soaked loved ones is a horror.
Mike Blanchard reviewed Blissful Homecare — 1 star
January 29, 2017 · The worst visiting nurse company I ever had!! Some of them can not follow simple instructions. If you want to end up, in my opinion, in a worse medical condition then you started off with, then go ahead and use them. You might be sorry you did..
Medicare’s rating is 2 1/2 stars out of a possible 5
Our largest concern is, given this enormous “Home Care” situation about to be set up in Dr. Bennett’s home – in the home of a man who was walking, talking, joking, enjoying life before he was forced against his will into Mass General Hospital, why Robert Bennett was now, apparently, being sent home in much worse shape than he was in when he was forced into Mass General twice – once discharged positively with no reason as to why he should have been forced in and the second time kept for five weeks in a small 7 x 9 foot area with no window, surrounded by a curtain which kept him from even seeing the sun let alone being in the sun for even five minutes. He was walking, jogging, enjoying the company of friends after his surgery and before he was forced into Mass General. Now they claim he has to be on a bed with an alarm if he gets up; an alarm on his chair for the same reason and they claim he has a difficult time walking – especially without support and many more such deficiencies.
We don’t know if that is his actual condition, or if this is what seems to be the normal route taken by Protective and Elder Services. This group seems to demand a lot of “home care” for those they work with, without the patient or family’s permission. We wonder if that is why no one has been able to see Dr. Bennett to be able to evaluate his condition.
One of the people who contacted us told us his story of the Elder Services group putting a lot of “home care” in place for him – most of which he did not need – claiming he could not make decisions for himself and with that excuse they totally ruined his life and destroyed his assets which he had worked a lifetime to put together. He was not wealthy by any means, but he said he was a pauper when all of that was over and he was never in such a state that he could not make his own decisions and he was able to get around on his own in spite of them trying to keep him still, not moving. He knew if he went along with that his life was over so when no one was looking he made sure to exercise, walk and try to keep his strength up.
Dr. Bennett’s family consulted with a neurologist who they asked to evaluate Dr. Bennett. The chief neurologist was only able to do so by reading the record because he was not able to actually physically see Dr. Bennett to compare the record with his actual condition. Dr. Bennett’s current Health Care Proxy – while she did not say no to this Chief Neurologist being able to examine Dr. Bennett for his family, she obfuscated to the point where it became impossible except by accessing the records to do so and that with difficulty.
When his wife asked that the Protective Order be removed and the Mass General created Health Care Proxy be re-established she was told no that would not happen.
When she asked why now was he being allowed back into his home when the abuse charge against her still stood. The Social Workers said that would not be removed, but everybody knew she had not abused her husband and everyone knew how devoted they were to each other, but the Protective Order with its abuse charge would still stand.
Also, she was told that if the agency which Medicare rates at 2 1/2 stars complains about Robert Bennett’s wife, he would be removed back to the hospital.
P. S. This is an African American family!
P. P. S. When Dr. Bennett was discharged from Mass General after his brain surgery he was discharged to a rehab place which was under quarantine for the flu. Would that have been done if Dr. Bennett were not African American? And when one enters the rehab to which Dr. Bennett was sent – without saying anything about the kind of job it does – one notices the color changes from white at Mass General to black at the rehab place to which it was suggested Dr. Bennett spend a bit of time. One also wonders why Dr. Bennett’s wife’s suggestion of Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Charlestown as a rehab center for Dr. Bennett was immediately turned down as a possibility for Dr. Bennett by the Mass General people who said where he should go.
Dr. Bennett made the choice to accept Mass Geenral’s suggestion of rehab not because of any physical reasons or physical incapacity he felt because his first choice was to go home after his ordeal, but he accepted their suggestion because of spiritual reasons.
The threat from Mass General to force Dr. Bennett’s family to accept their terms is that Dr. Bennett would be discharged to a nursing home instead if the family did not accept this suggestion. This was about the fifth threat of sending Dr. Bennett to a nursing home if the family did not do something Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services along with the Section 12 part of Mass General Hospital was trying to force on this family. Their threats continued on to giving guardianship over him to different agencies. The last such threat made by Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services and the Section 12 personnel making up Dr. Bennett’s “team” to Dr. Bennett’s family was that guardianship over Dr. Bennett would be given to the Jewish Agency for Family and Children if they and Dr. Bennett did not accept this release under their terms and he would then be sent to a Hebrew Nursing Home – Dr. Bennett, a retired Episcopal priest who is strongly wedded to his denomination.
Given what is happening with the many people dying from coronavirus in nursing homes – with the virus spreading fast amongst nursing homes around the country including the Greater Boston area that is a potent threat.
Countered against the threat of several people coming in and out of Dr. Bennett’s family daily bringing the threat of the coronavirus to Dr. Bennett, Ffrom what Dr. Bennett’s family has heard as they checked out this company that is also a very potent threat. That put up against a much safer, more caring, more concerned and more capable home in which Dr. Bennett has lived for 36 years safely with his wife until his current Health Care Proxy involved herself in his health care – is an amazing set of choices – especially given the order in which those three choices stand.
His family cannot choose who they prefer to provide whatever care Dr. Bennett needs – that has to be chosen by those making such choices under the Mass General Hospital banner supplemented by or led by Somerville Cambridge Protective and Elder Services. This includes those responsible for the forged Health Care Proxy and that includes the person who forged his health Care Proxy so she could be in the position of his Health Care Proxy.
This is one reason why the dichotomy in the numbers of African Americans with the coronavirus and this is why such disparities will continue. Every right possessed by Americans with their health care and guaranteed by the Constitution – including Dr. Bennett’s right to vote – have been denied to Dr. Bennett and his family – with the attitude that those doing the denying have the right and the power over them to do so.
It is also assumed that the manipulation of the Court and the lies told to the Court to obtain this outcome was right and just and why would Dr. Bennett and his family expect anything any different.
When Dr. Bennett went to Mass General, we and his family felt Mass General was fantastic and we said so to everybody.
Our experience with this is beginning to make a change in that evaluation.
Especially since we noticed the section 12 is really the back door at Mass General and the color changes quickly as you get into that area. For example, there are almost no African American nor other minority nurses in other parts of the hospital. A majority of the nurses in that part of the hospital are minority nurses – mostly African Americans along with a majority of African Americans with Caribbean accents as aides in that part of the hospital. Is there a reason minority nurses qualify to work in the section 12 part of the hospital and not, for example, in neurology?
We want to be very clear about this – Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett’s family wants him home desperately. They do not, however, want him home only to have the structure in place – as it is now – which will simplify and accelerate the process for him to be picked up once again by the police and brought back to the hospital and this is clearly what this is about. They would like Dr. Bennett to be released, as he should have been weeks ago – and actually, he should immediately be released because he should never have been so incarcerated to begin with.
The racism within all of this is screaming!
