EDMONTON — An 86-year-old Edmonton woman will get a new competency assessment after she was forced into a nursing home based on a competency test done in a language she didn’t understand, a judge has ordered.
Officials with the Elder Advocates of Alberta Society say Eudokija Cinciruk’s case is representative of many seniors who find themselves suddenly stripped of their independence and have to fight to get it back.
Cinciruk, who goes by the first name of Dora, went into the University of Alberta Hospital last October to be treated for a burn after accidentally scalding herself with boiling water.
An assessment was done of Cinciruk’s mental capacity and she was deemed to have dementia.
But her lawyer, Allan Garber, told court Monday that the senior, whose native language is Ukrainian and whose English skills are poor, didn’t understand the questions put to her.
The society says some members of the woman’s family told doctors that their mother wasn’t eating properly and couldn’t care for herself.
In December, she was transferred to a long-term care facility. Now she’s fighting to get out, says the advocacy group.
Her two eldest daughters have applied to the Court of Queen’s Bench to become official trustees and guardians for their mother, but Garber said Cinciruk doesn’t want that.
He told Justice D.C. Read, that when he went to visit the woman April 8, he asked her to come to his office to officially retain him as her lawyer, but he was told Cinciruk wasn’t allowed to leave the nursing home.
The judge ordered that Cinciruk should remain in the nursing home for now, and she should receive a new capacity assessment with a translator who can explain the questions to her in her own language. The assessment will be done by a specialist chosen by the Public Guardian.
Read also ordered that the woman should be able to meet with her lawyer, that her house not be sold and any bills more than $500 should only be paid after consulting Cinciruk’s two oldest daughters.