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Spectrum Institute is pleased to participate in National Mental Health Awareness Month by placing a commemorative poster on the home page of our website and including the poster in our May newsletter.  May was first designated as a time to promote the importance of mental health in 1949 by an organization known as Mental Health America.  Other organizations, such as the American Hospital Association, National Council for Behavioral Health, and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, are raising awareness this month of the importance of mental health care.  The County of San Diego has chosen “Hope for […]

Attorney Thomas F. Coleman, legal director of Spectrum Institute, made a 45-minute presentation on April 12, 2021, at a National Guardianship Symposium.  His presentation identified parts of California’s probate conservatorship system that are broken – which is all of them.  He offered specific reform proposals and identified the officials and agencies to whom each one should be directed.  The approach he suggested for California could be adapted to any of the other 49 states which have guardianship or conservatorship systems that are not functioning as they should be – which is all of them.  Spectrum Institute can be commissioned to […]

This series will explore the potential consequences of violating the right to mental health therapy – consequences to individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, and to those who are the gatekeepers to such services such as professional guardians and primary care physicians. Reports will also delve into the financial consequences that the deprivation of mental health therapy can have on state and local resources, such as extra burdens being placed on entitlement programs, law enforcement services, and judicial proceedings. The series will be based on articles that have been produced by college interns working under the supervision of Tina Baldwin, […]

By Thomas F. ColemanLos Angeles Daily Journal The top-down approach to conservatorship reform has been tried for nearly 15 years with very little success.  Perhaps it is time for reform advocates to use a more grass-roots process. When a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times exposed major problems with California’s probate conservatorship system in November 2005, there was a swift reaction from elected officials in all three branches of state government.  The pattern of corruption and dysfunction that emerged from the newspaper’s review of 2,400 conservatorship cases could not be ignored. The chief justice convened a probate task […]

World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day on April 2nd every year, encouraging member states of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about people with autistic spectrum disorders including autism and Asperger syndrome throughout the world. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly through a resolution adopted on December 18 2007. (World Autism Awareness Day, Wikipedia) Various organizations in the United States have built on this resolution to designate April of each year as Autism Awareness Month.  Some, such as the Autism Society have expanded the concept to Autism Acceptance Month.  That organization’s website states: “This April, the Autism Society of America celebrates differences as it […]

Some Washington Judges Don’t Care a Lot by Thomas F. Coleman Last week I started to watch the movie I Care a Lot.  This award-winning film depicts the way in which vulnerable adults are often targeted in guardianship scams orchestrated by unscrupulous fiduciaries who enlist the help of care providers, real estate agents, and attorneys – all of which is accomplished with a judicial nod and wink.    I was so upset just 15 minutes into the film that I stopped watching it.  I plan to resume when I feel strong enough to endure the frightening scenarios it depicts. Perhaps my […]

Several organizations have joined Spectrum Institute’s call for congressional hearings into abusive conservatorship and guardianship systems.  The request was sent on March 11, 2021, in a letter to Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NJ), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. The idea for the request was stimulated by news stories that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, had asked for such hearings in response to growing media attention to the abusive conservatorship in which entertainment icon Britney Spears has been entangled for more than 10 years.  The letter from Gaetz to Nadler states: “The House Committee on […]

By Thomas F. Coleman Daily Journal – March 3, 2021 A measure relating to appointed legal counsel in probate conservatorships was recently introduced into the California Assembly.  Assembly Bill 596 is authored by Assemblymember Janet Nguyen, a Republican legislator representing parts of Orange County. The bill is sponsored by the California Lawyers Association on behalf of its Trusts and Estates Section.  The CLA represents the business interests of some 7,000 members of that section who practice law in California’s probate courts.  While CLA officials may believe the bill improves existing law, improvement is in the eye of the beholder.  AB596 […]

Spectrum Institute is pleased to participate in Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.  Each March, organizations and individuals throughout the United States engage in a variety of activities to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all areas of community life, as well as awareness to the barriers that people with disabilities still sometimes face in connecting to the communities in which they live.  Developmental disabilities include cerebral palsy, autism, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The history and purpose of this commemoration is explained by the Special Needs Alliance: “In 1987 President Ronald Reagan […]