To: Mr John Hatton MP, Member for South Coast
Sent: 24-08-1992

Dear Mr Hatton,

I believe that many years ago you took up the cudgels for a Jewish refugee couple whose land at Fitzroy Falls was resumed by the then Minister for Lands, Tom Lewis. Perhaps you would care to hear of the latest misfortune that has befallen Mrs Emy Beiler-Trostler, Rudi Trostler's 85-year-old widow.

To put it in a nutshell: she has been plucked from her home a few weeks ago on a pretext, was taken to XXX Hospital's rehab unit and shunted off into a nearby nursing home, while at the same time an application was made for her to be declared "demented" and a guardian appointed.

Emy is strongly protesting against this treatment, and demands to be allowed home. I have talked to her doctor twice: the first time he made it quite clear he had no justifiable medical reason to keep her confined, and that he thought her mind was clear - to the point where he had to impress on the nursing home staff to treat Emy as "an intelligent lady" - but on a later occasion appeared to have adopted the [hospital's] assessment unit's line. However, last Friday he was still prepared to let Emy go home if proper care could be arranged for her there.

(You may wonder how I come into this: I am a XXX journalist who met the couple in the course of my profession some 18 years ago and we have been friends for a long time. My wife and I have visited Emy fairly regularly over the past two years or so, sometimes twice a week, and - although XXX rehab staff made much of her "confused and agitated" state in a written assessment - we both feel that she is far from "demented", just suffering the normal impairment of short-term memory to be expected at her age.)

To give you some background: Emy has continued working, albeit occasionally and from home, as a milliner until a few years ago, even after Rudi's death about five years ago.

Two years ago she fell and injured her hip, and a few days later when I visited I drove her to XXX Hospital for X-rays. Fortunately, there was no fracture and she was allowed home. She has had casual (every second day, not on weekends) community nursing care since and was also receiving Meals on Wheels lately. A number of friends dropped in regularly to see that she was o.k., one of them making daily calls on her way back from work at the XXX Hospital.

In the past few months my wife and I gained the impression that the level of care afforded her appeared to be slipping, and that Emy was showing some signs of neglect. We pointed out our concern to Emy's long-term acquaintance, who had power-of-attorney for her, somehow expecting this friend to make suitable arrangements for improved care.

It appears, however, that it was found more expedient to replace the previous casual care with full-time nursing home accommodation, at public expense, rather than arrange perhaps daily or even twice-daily calls by a privately paid nurse.

Emy, being the frugal person she has always been, seemingly acquiesces with the notion being put by her long-time acquaintance that she "cannot afford" any paid level of care. However, she has cash assets of around $30,000-$40,000 and could also obtain a repayment-free loan on her Narrabeen property (with the relevant capital and interest being taken out of her estate eventually).

Whatever the real reasons for taking what I consider the expedient of declaring Emy "demented", this course of action, as far as I can judge, is against the best interests of a person who has accumulated some modest means literally with her own two hands, and who deserves a little bit of comfort and respect in her last few years of life rather than the "total care" of a crowded nursing home with most residents (I nearly said inmates) in a deplorable state of abandonment.

I believe that Emy needs someone who can make an independent assessment of her state of mind, and her needs and capabilities for obtaining care. There appears to be a bit of a "party line" being given out to justify her confinement, and her only relative, a niece in the US, has already announced she will arrive in mid-September to sell the property.

I don't really know how I should go about to help her, and of course I don't wish my motives to be questioned. Perhaps you may be able to suggest a course of action?

Sincerely yours,