FATE article in Sacramento Business Journal Crusader for elderly no stranger to outsider's role  - Published August 18, 2003 FATE's speech to the Consumer Attorneys of California 38th Annual Convention FATE article in Sacramento Bee Watch out for the watchdog - Published August 18, 2003 BOARD of DIRECTORS Carole Herman President, Board Chair, Executive Committee, Finance Committee Sacramento, CA Founder of the Foundation Aiding The Elderly Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Banner Software Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Sterling Software Successful software marketing entrepreneur whose aunt died from neglect and abuse in a local nursing home that led her to organize the Foundation Aiding The Elderly, an elder abuse advocacy  - Read my message Harris Herman Secretary/Treasurer, Executive Committee, Finance Committee Sacramento, CA Co-Founder, President/CEO , Banner Software Co-Founder, President/CEO, Sterling Software Successful software marketing entrepreneur who provides full support to his wife, Carole, in FATE's work with the elderly, serving as an officer of the organization and a member of the Board of Directors. Devara Berger Sacramento, CA Health Care Policy Consultant specializing in aging and long term care. Well-known speaker on end-of-life, brain impairment, care- giving and aging issues. Judy Boothby, RDHAP, BS, Gerontology Fair Oaks, CA Locally prominent owner of Dental Hygiene Out and About, which provides dental hygienist services to the elderly in nursing homes, assisted living centers, residential care and private homes. Ms. Boothby was selected to conduct the first pilot program in California for dental hygiene in nursing homes. Lesley Ann Clement, Esq. Executive Committee Sacramento, CA Founder of Clement & Associates, a law firm specializing in legal cases in the elder abuse area. A nationally known attorney in the field recently profiled by "People" Magazine for her work. Linda Giese, Retired Registrar of Charitable Trusts California Attorney General's Office Head of the state agency responsible for registering and monitoring charitable trusts in California. Also had a mother who lived in an assisted living facility in Northern California. Dr. James Reynolds, DVM W. Roseville Veterinary Hospital Father was also a doctor who died in a nursing home from poor care. Kathy Zegalia, RN, BSN, CCRN Orange, CA A pediatric nurse who was an early client of FATE after her father died from poor care in a Southern California nursing home.

About FATE

The story begins in 1980. Matilda Anticevich, 77, ill and requiring 24-hour care, was admitted to a highly regarded and expensive nursing home in California. By the time Matilda was transferred to a hospital for emergency surgery 18 months later, relatives who visited daily had filed numerous complaints with the nursing home staff for repeated failures to receive prescribed medication, bones broken under suspicious circumstances, mental and physical abuse, and suppurating bedsores that had now reached life-threatening proportions. Matilda did not survive the surgery. Weakened by malnutrition, her cause of death was cited as pneumonia, coronary arteriosclerosis and "most severe" bedsores.

After a three-year uphill battle with apathetic officials, files that mysteriously disappeared, three closures of the case with no action, and a pattern of stonewalling by state agencies created to protect patients from abuse and poor care, two things happened: The district administrator of the agency that licenses and monitors nursing homes was fired and Carole Herman , Matilda's niece, who fought the system for three years, founded FATE, the Foundation Aiding The Elderly.

Carole Herman became an advocate. In a tradition as old as America she protected the weak, fought the powerful, demanded government do its job, doctor's fulfill the Hippocratic Oath and the public care. Over the past 20 years she has accomplished all of these, yet the work goes on.

State and local government agencies and commissions, the owners of offending nursing homes and the nursing home doctor are terrified of her. She has had her life threatened, been removed from a local  aging commission, been threatened with legal action, and had more nursing home administrators and government officials attempt to intimidate her than she can remember.

For 20 years she has worked a minimum of 40 hours a week helping patients and their families and has never paid herself a salary, (until finally starting to take one this year) has never actively solicited funds and has donated thousands of dollars of her own money in the cause hardly anyone else would take on when she began, with the exception of pioneers like Mary Adelaide Mendelson who became a mentor of Carole Herman.

Today, FATE has affiliated organizations and colleagues fighting elderly patient's rights in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Carolina. FATE has helped families all over the country. Hundreds of complaints have been filed with regulatory agencies responsible for overseeing medical practice and procedures in nursing homes. Civil actions have been filed on behalf of patients and their families. And the movement to illuminate and reverse these all-too-common incidents of neglect, abuse and criminal assault, ranging from hair pulling to outright beatings, is growing.

Carole Herman and FATE fulfill a vital and increasing need, as we all live longer lives with an increased possibility of needing long term care, of providing direct action advocacy and education that will ensure that care is received with the dignity all of us deserve.

In October 2001 Carole Herman was a Volunteer Spirit Award winner receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for her work with FATE on behalf of the elderly.

Presented by the Volunteer Center of the Sacramento region this was a wonderful honor and recognition of the 20 years of dedicated volunteer work Carole has provided to the community in honor of her aunt Matilda.

As the Sacramento Bee said in noting the volunteer awards "Their energy and generosity demand our admiration. Their contribution to the well-being of our community earns our thanks and respect."

In February 2002 Carole was presented with a Resolution from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors for "her dedication and care for the elderly of our community."

Today, as the need for FATE's services and Carole Herman's dedication to serving the elderly deepens, we are reaching out to those within the community who we have been honored to be of service to and asking for your support and your prayers as we continue to aid the elderly.