RESOURCES

PROFESSIONAL & GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid   http://www.cms.hhs.gov
Medicare 1-800-Medicare or www.Medicare.gov
Social Security Administration  http://www.ssa.gov
California Code of Regulations  http://www.calregs.com
California advocates for nursing home reform  http://www.canhr.org
Western Center on Law & Poverty  http://welp.org
Health Consumer Alliance  http://www.healthconsumer.org
California HealthCare Foundation  http://www.chcf.org 
Professional Fiduciaries Bureau  http://www.fiduciary.ca.gov
Professional Fiduciary Association of Callifornia  http://www.pfac-pro.org


ABUSE
Adult Protective Services 1-888-202-4248
Elder Abuse Hotline 1-877-477-3646
Longterm Care Ombudsman 1-800-334-9473
Elder Abuse Advocacy Outreach Program 1-800-773-7574


ADVOCACY
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities 
Council for Exceptional Children
Don't Laugh At Me
Federation for Children with Special Needs
The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders
Mothers from Hell
National Inclusive Schools Week
National Fair Housing Advocate Online
National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
Easter Seals  
Senior Community Hotline 1-213-738-4004
H.E.L.P. (Health & Elder Law Programs) 1-310-533-1996
Elder Care Locator 1-800-677-1116
Caregivers Resource Center 1-800-540-4442   

HOUSING
Accessible Apartment Clearinghouse
CCD Housing Task Force
CHANCE at UNH
Center for Universal Design
Community Integration Report
Consumer's Guide to Accessible Housing
Habitat for Humanity
HomeMods.org
Home Modification information at Inifinitec.org
Home modification for Wheelchairs 


HEALTH
Doctor Solve: Canadian Prescription Drugs  
Health Care Coach
Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA)
Indigent Prescription Programs
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
Online Health Resources
The Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission 
ADD Resources at About.com
ADHD News
Autism News Network
Autism Treatment Center of America
Brain and Spinal Cord Injury
Future Horizons - Autism  
Pfeiffer Treatment CenterType your paragraph here.

Glossary of Terms

Administrator/Executor
A person appointed by the court to administer(i.e.) manage or take charge of) the assets and liabilities of a decedent.  If the person performing these services is named by the decedent's will, he is designated as the executor of the estate.

Advance Directives
Written instructions, such as a living will or durable power of attorney for health care, which guides care when an individual is terminally ill or incapacitated and unable to communicate his/her desires.

Advocate
One who assists, defends, or pleads for another.  One who renders legal advice and aid and pleads the cause of another before a court or tribunal, a counselor.

Beneficiary
The person for whose benefit a trust is created.  Also the person to whom the amount of an insurance policy or annuity is payable.

Conservatee
A person whom a judge has decided is unable to care for themselves and/or their finances.

Conservator
Generally, an individual or a trust institution appointed by the court to care for property of an incompetent.

Dementia
A category of disorders charachterized by the development of multiple cognitive deficits

Developmental Disability
A severe chronic disability of an individual 5 years of age or older that is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments; is manifested before the age 22; is likely to continue indefinately

Disabled Person
A person 18 years of age or older deemed by the court to be lacking sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions concerning care of his person or financial affairs

Duress
Compulsion or constraint by force or fear of personal violence, prosecution, or imprisonment that induces a person to do what he does not want to do or to refrain from doing somenthing he has the legal right to do

Executor
An individual or a trust institution nominated in a will and appointed by a court to settle the estate of a testator

Fiduciary
An individual or a trust institution charged with the duty of acting for the benefit of another party as to matters coming within the scope of the relationship betweent hem. 

Guardian
An individual or a trust institution appointed by a court to care for the property or the person (or both) (or partial) of a minor or an incompetent.

Guardian ad litem
A person appointed by the court to represent and defend a minor or an incompetent in connection with court proceedings; sometimes called a special guardian

Heir
A person who inherits property; to be distinguished from the next of kin and from distributee.

Indemnity
Protection or exemption from loss or damage

Living Trust
A trust that becomes operative during the lifetime of the settlor; as opposed to a trust under will.  The same as a trust inter vivos.

Pecuniary bequest
A gift of money by will.

Personal property
All property other than real property.

Power of Attorney
A person authorizes another to take care of finances or health care decisions.  The document may be "durable" in which case it survives the incapacity of the principal or "general" in which case the authority ceases with the person's incapacity.

Probate
Generically, the process of taking the will into court, getting the executor or adminsitrator appointed, marshalling assets, paying debts, accounting to the court and distributing the assets of the estate.

Prudent Person Rule
An investment standard.  State law may require that a fiduciary may invest funds only in a list of securities designated by the state or invest funds in a security which a prudent man of discretion would invest in.

Representative Payee
An individual, agency or organization named by a government agency to receive government benefits on behalf of and for the benefit of the beneficiary entitled to such benefits.

Revocable Trust
A trust that by its terms may be terminated by the settlor or by another person; as opposed to an irrevocable trust

Testate
Having made and left a valid will; as opposed to intestate

Testamentary capacity
Mental capacity to make a will valid.