How could this have been avoided? What are the social issues involved?
Basically, this 93 year old (no close relatives, lives alone) did not pay his electric bill. He owed the company more than $1000.00. He had the money, he apparently was not fit enough to remember to pay it. The City came in an put an electricity limiter on his service that rationed his usage. He used up his allotment for the week and his power went out. He froze to death as temperatures have been in the single digits most days this month. There are more details in the article.
Are there social services? lists of vulnerable adults? meals on wheels? information shared within primary care, social services and the emergency services?
I think that there will always be individuals that fall through the cracks but usually the information is there and its a case of getting local agencies to talk to each other. We have it with substance abuse and pregnant women, elderly adults living on their own and domestic violence.
Are there agencies that visit people at home? who knew, who else knows about other individuals? is there some way of co-ordinating them? be it social services, NGO’s churches, the police, emergency services and so on and so forth.
There is no question that vulnerable individuals in the UK occasionaly slip through the net (google baby P if you want to hear a horror story) but in the case of some of those things mentioned, there are usually some form of multi-disciplinary meeting where all the agencies involved in providing one individuals care will meet on a regular basis to discuss things.
Where someone does not warrant that level of care, they are likely to be seen by their PCP, a district nurse, a social worker or someone else in the community on a regular basis who you’d hope would be aware of these things.
My gran’s 93 and although her family see her regularly, she also has a alarm provided by the council she can use if she falls and she has a number of different people visit every week to take care of certain tasks. This is not that uncommon, more so where someone does not have family that can visit.
Its not a particulary good reflection on society when these things happen, baby P was horrendous, you could see whether there is someway of co-ordinating local agencies to attempt to prevent this from occuring again.
I find it deeply troubling that the utility company shut off the electricity without investigating the impact. Especially during a cold winter when the possibility of the occupant freezing to death is a foreseeable consequence. Is it really too much to send a social worker to the home to evaluate the persons situation before cutting them off entirely? I found the city official’s callous defense to be contemptible.
This article has more information.
These are the comments by City Manager Robert Bellman that I take issue with:
He said Bay City Electric Light & Power’s policies will be reviewed, but he didn’t believe the city did anything wrong.
“I’ve said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors,” Belleman said. “When they think there’s something wrong, they should contact the appropriate agency or city department.”
Five minutes to set up an auto pay on his utility bills would do the trick if he had the money. Although I’m not sure why he was on a limit if he had the money. If he was short of the money to pay his monthly bills then that is a whole other problem.
Of course that does not address the root problem of a 93 yr old person living alone without the mental faculties to pay a monthly bill.
Sounds like dementia or something. A lot of dementia sufferers have money, they just lack short term memory to remember they got a bill to pay (this is very generalized scenario of dementia).
Very sad and I would like to think that the electric company would have gone to social services about it., and then social services could check it out and contact his family members to get things inline. But I know that is not likely to happen anywhere.
I know my parents are getting older and my brother, sister and I have started an online journal of things we notice about our parents. I started noticing things a while ago, but they were all little things, when we started talking, they all started adding up. If family members don’t think one minor thing is a big deal and it doesn’t get discussed then a loss in mental capabilities can go unnoticed.
It’s sad the family hadn’t noticed what was going on and alerted a neighbor to check in, or had his bills transferred to them so they could make sure they were paid.
I spent 8 months as a caretaker for a woman with dementia, it opened my eyes to little things to look for.
State law here in Wisconsin forbids utility companies from disconnecting customers from during the winter months (Nov 15th-march 15th, I think) no matter how far behind on payments. Not a bad law considering how cold this winter has been.
I heard that guy (Bellman) on a radio interview today. He pretty much said what you did. In my opinion, the electric company should not be able to put this limiter on WITHOUT direct contact (face-to-face). That is all that would have been needed to recognize the situation. It sounds like they strapped this thing on and left without ever explaining it.
It also sounds like the neighbors keep an eye on him somewhat, but not an everyday thing. He is certainly a candidate for “slipping through the cracks.” It is rough because it seems there is no family.
If you know Bay City, it is really a throw back sort of city. There are areas that look a lot like Archie Bunker’s place. It is definitely an older sort of city.
It is hard to answer your questions without really knowing the case. I only know what I have read and heard in one radio interview. I think you have some interesting suggestions.
In many cases like this there is at least some family involved somewhere. Usually they set up something with the PD for welfare checks. Our department goes on these a couple of times a week. The city I work in is not too dissimilar to Bay City in age and age of the population. I do not think our local health care system is equipped to handle this sort of thing. Certainly they would step in if they recognized some sort of dementia at a check up. I can tell you for ceratin that if there was ever a 911 call and we had an inkling that some thing was fishy, we would report it and get social services involved.
As I stated earlier, I think there should be some sort of a policy where they cannot use this sort of equipment (the limiter) unless there is face-to-face contact to explain what is going on.
“Are there social services? lists of vulnerable adults? meals on wheels? information shared within primary care, social services and the emergency services?”
There better not be. This is America damn it, don’t go bringing your socialist policies to my backyard. Land of free, smaller government, only the stongest smartest should survive and prosper. If this gentleman no longer had the mental snapses to pay his bill we shouldn’t have even waited for him to slowly freeze to death, he should have been put on an iceberg and sent off into Lake Michigan.
Or do we (as Americans) have a certain responsibility to take care of those less fortunate (in his case mentally)?
As I stated earlier, I think there should be some sort of a policy where they cannot use this sort of equipment (the limiter) unless there is face-to-face contact to explain what is going on.
Bernie
Hey Bernie, I’m pretty new here so I hope you don’t mind me chiming in. People usually don’t like their services shut off or limited. That’s why there isn’t face to face contact. A worker gets dispatched to put on a limiter or shut off service. He doesn’t know why the bill isn’t being paid by the occupant or a landlord, he just knows what he was sent to do. Not too many repo men ring your doorbell and tell you they want your car, they just tow it away during the middle of the night. The utility needs to do a better job on the front end, before it gets so far along that a shut off or limiter is warranted. However, that costs money and no one wants to pay more for services.
Comes down to mostly neibhors that care and look after each other especially the old and the young. Also I think the city bears part of the responsability for putting on the limiter. There should have been some way for the city to know when he used up his allotment and a system that checks right away when allotment is used up with someone to go directly to house to check that all is okay. Shame the old man does not have anyone to sue on his behalf so this will never happen again. Before evryone gangs up on me . I said sue so it never happens again. Not sue for money.
People usually don’t like their services shut off or limited. That’s why there isn’t face to face contact. A worker gets dispatched to put on a limiter or shut off service. He doesn’t know why the bill isn’t being paid by the occupant or a landlord, he just knows what he was sent to do. Not too many repo men ring your doorbell and tell you they want your car, they just tow it away during the middle of the night. The utility needs to do a better job on the front end, before it gets so far along that a shut off or limiter is warranted. However, that costs money and no one wants to pay more for services.
I understand what you are saying. I see a big difference between repossessing a car and turning ANYONE’s electricity off in the middle of the winter. Add to the mix that this is a municipal electric company (not a privately held company like Edison or Consumer’s) and the burden becomes higher. I agree that it never should have gotten to this point and there should have been more “front-end” work done in this case. A little communication would have gone a LONG way in this case at any point in the process.