Gary Busey

[augusta]

I usually can't stand one of those "reality" shows. But I could not resist watching Dr. Drew's Celebrity _____(?) the other night. Dr. Drew is a real doctor who runs a rehab clinic for celebrities. It airs on VH1, not sure the night. Anyway a preview came up showing Gary Busey was gonna check into the place, and this I had to see.

He was always a top favorite of mine, and it was dis-heartening when stories started coming out about his eccentric behavior. I thought it might be interesting, and it was!

I guess last week was the season opener, because a whole group of "celebrities" showed up and checked in. When Gary Busey got there, he starts taking pictures off the walls, saying he brought his own stuff to hang up. The girl checking him in was going through his things to check for contraband, and she found mouthwash and said he can't have that in there because of the alcohol (some people drink it if they can't get real booze). He said oh no. That was not his past addiction. His drug of choice was coke and "I been clean and sober for 13 years," he must have said ten times during that show.

He thought he was there as one of the counselors! When another patient would come up to him, he would say he was sent by an angel to help others recover, because he had been thru it and was now "clean and sober for 13 years". Patients didn't quite know what to make of him.

During a group session, he broke in on the doctor's welcome talk and was starting to announce his role of counseling there and the doctor cut him off and ended the talk. Busey privately confronted Dr. Drew, and the doctor said he was a patient here, just like everybody else. And Busey said no - and recited his "13 years" line again.

That pretty much ended the first show. It came out in the show (not in front of Busey) that he was taking medicinal marijuana and some other pill regularly. The doctor made a private comment that ever since Busey had his motorcycle accident he's been like unbalanced.

I am very curious to know how he got talked into going into that clinic, and why he thinks he's a counselor. Did someone deceive him into telling him he'd be a counselor? Or is it a delusion he has? I wonder if he has a website/blog ...

[SallyG]

Medicinal marijuana? Right. Although many people don't consider pot a drug...

Sounds interesting. I always wonder how much of those shows are really REAL.

[augusta]

So true! I thought "Rock of Love" was pretty lame. But I think my all-time worst "reality" show was "Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant".

I do not believe Gary Busey is faking on that show. A couple of the patients on there are good examples for staying away from drugs. The young guy who used to be on "Taxi" is unrecognizeable on there, and is such a mess. An old drummer for 'Guns'N Roses' is on there, and he had a stroke at a young age (20's maybe?), and is pretty bad off. Those three for sure are interesting to see. I should get my teenage son to watch with me.

My elderly mother, in a nursing home, was given medicinal marijuana. It was in pill form and very pure and potent. She was terrorized by hallucinations. I didn't know they were even giving it to her. I'd ask the staff, "What's up with my mother? When she came here, she wasn't acting like this." And all the staff would parrot the same line. "It's dementia. They all get it."

When I brought her home for an afternoon, we spent the entire time talking, and she didn't hallucinate or talk bizarrely. And I kept saying to people, "You know, when she was here for the afternoon, she didn't act the way she does at the nursing home." Oh! I should have known what was happening. She was so traumatized by it, and she has a serious heart condition.

The day I took her out of that place and brought her home to take care of her, the discharge nurse went over her meds with me and lo and behold she had to tell me they'd been giving it to her "to increase her appetite". There are other pills to increase a person's appetite. I think in that place, they gave it to everybody. All the patients were like zombies, except this one woman who had a big mouth and questioned everything. (Good for her!)

When my mother got too weak to walk on her own and I could no longer care for her, she was put into a good nursing home.

[SallyG]

Well, I have no doubt it increased her appetite!! However, I would think, as the daughter and next of kin, you should have been told ALL her medications.

However, I'm sure we all know that many nursing homes can be horrendous.

All in all, I don't care for reality shows. If I want to see reality, I'll take a look around me. Otherwise, I watch TV to be entertained...to escape into a pleasant fantasy world for awhile. I really don't care to see other peoples problems...I have enough of my own.

[augusta]

I agree with you, Sally. But Gary Busey caught my eye and I had to watch.

I used to watch 'Intervention' but then stopped for a long time. That is a show that does do good, by getting an addict into rehab, and a lot of the cases turn out good; they save lives.

Last night, I was flicking channels and 'Intervention' was on. They had a young woman addicted to inhalants. I'd heard about it before but didn't know anything much about it. It was horrible, but interesting to see what goes on with a person who does them (at least this person).

When my mother first became ill, she was in the custody of a Guardianship Company. I never even heard of such a thing. It was hard to get her back from their clutches - they were nasty. It took a lot of money, attorneys and time waiting for court hearings. During that time, she was in the bad nursing home that gave her the pot. Never again will I let someone I care about slip into a Guardianship Company's hands. Very bad stuff.

[Tina-Kate]

The Celebrity Rehab show seems to have been quite popular in England. There were ads for it all over the place when I was there in April.

[SallyG]

I agree with you, Sally. But Gary Busey caught my eye and I had to watch.

I used to watch 'Intervention' but then stopped for a long time. That is a show that does do good, by getting an addict into rehab, and a lot of the cases turn out good; they save lives.

Last night, I was flicking channels and 'Intervention' was on. They had a young woman addicted to inhalants. I'd heard about it before but didn't know anything much about it. It was horrible, but interesting to see what goes on with a person who does them (at least this person).

When my mother first became ill, she was in the custody of a Guardianship Company. I never even heard of such a thing. It was hard to get her back from their clutches - they were nasty. It took a lot of money, attorneys and time waiting for court hearings. During that time, she was in the bad nursing home that gave her the pot. Never again will I let someone I care about slip into a Guardianship Company's hands. Very bad stuff.

I know what you mean. My late uncle had stroke back in 2000. He was a self-employed artist and since he had no insurance or medicare, these social workers took over his case, his life, and his possessions. They had his house condemned and set to be razed, put all his possessions on the auction block, and drained all his bank accounts.

By the time they got done with him, he was worse off than when he'd had the stroke and he died about 4 months after he entered the hospital. My mother and I managed to save the house from demolition and it has been turned back into the beautiful Victorian it used to be, and we were able to save old photos, documents, etc...we literally had to break into the house and "steal" them. However, his bank accounts were drained, no documentation was offered as to where the money went, and his life insurance money was seized after he died.

All the work of two social workers, of whom I have serious doubt about their integrity. Now I'm sure families can be difficult to deal with in many cases, but these two women literally "took over", despite the fact that the family was ready and willing to care for him!

I'm sure there are social workers who do good....but I've seen many who are dishonest and unethical.

[augusta]

I got goose bumps when I read about you and your mother saving the things from your uncle's house. Thank God you were able to do that much.

I'd be interested to learn how those two social workers got control like that, when near family was willing to step in?

The Guardianship Company got control of my mom because my brother had just died very suddenly, and she collapsed. When she was rushed to the hospital, it was found that she could not take care of herself and had faked it for a long time. (She had a moron as a live-in companion who would like run errands for her and stuff.) All the family was in shock, and we were suddenly asked if we wanted to be my mother's guardian. We were told if not, it'd be okay - a "temporary" guardian would be appointed by the court and we could get guardianship of her soon with a court hearing. Wow, great!

No wow great. The first thing they did was change all the locks on her house and gave NO ONE a key. They went in and out as they pleased, and to this day there is stuff missing - jewelry and her life insurance policy are two that come to mind. They never visited her in the hospital. They put her in that horrible nursing home. They were shining up to my one sister, calling her up and courting her. As a result, my sister told the judge at the court hearing that we should not be given custody of my mother! (They tried to woo me, but after one phone call the second one turned nasty on me and me, well, I don't take stuff from people like that.) So the Guardian Company got to be her guardian for even longer. Another hearing was set, several months later, as my mom rotted in that bad nursing home.

One day, when I called the guardianship company and asked to speak to my mother's guardian, the person who was it said, "I don't have time to do this! I have 700 cases to manage!" Whew! And this is my mother's "guardian"?

They had told me that they would let any of us in the house at any time we wanted. So I called because my mom's moron live-in companion needed to get his stuff out of the house to move into a new apartment. It was the rule of the place - if you don't have furniture, you could not move in.

So when my mother's "guardian" said that to me, I was put thru to the manager of the hell hole. I let her go first. She, who was sweet as honey before, started yelling at me. "We can't come down there just on any whim! We have ONE MAN who opens houses for people! And he is BUSY that day! MAYBE we can put you in on Monday, the earliest!" I let her go on, letting her think she was really scaring me. When she stopped I lit into her. She was not expecting it.

"Listen," I said. "If you don't have somebody at my mother's house on Saturday to let us in - which you promised we could get in at any time we wanted - you are gonna be talkin' to my attorney. My mother's companion needs his furniture to move into a place on Saturday or they won't let him move in. Then you'll have to explain how you let an old man be homeless for an entire weekend."

"There's no need to threaten me," she said, miffed but not crazed like she was. Then she got her dander up again. "I will have our man be there at 9 AM on Saturday. If there is no on there, he will leave! And he will bring with him a videocam and tape record every movement that's made. You're to bring a list of the man's things. And if any of you even try to take something that's not on the list, he will throw you out and you will NEVER get in that house again!" "Thank you," I said emotionlessly as I hung up.

Meanwhile the months ticked on. My husband said to me, "She's dying. Your mother is dying in that place." She was.

After a lot of money in legal expenses - just to get my mother 'back'! - and a lot of time - we were made her guardian when the judge ruled against my sister, when I brought more people to court to say we would be good guardians. (My sister and I are once again close. She now sees how that guardian company's attorney worked on her, and I could see in the courtroom that little weasel doing his dirty work.)

Now my mother's things the Guardian Company took from her house "so no one would burglarize the vacant house" were to be returned to us. They made an appointment with us, and when we went there, there was no one to talk to us. Only a box with things thrown helter skelter in it, sitting on a table in the vestibule, with my mother's name on it. We guessed we were supposed to take it.

When we got it home and went thru it, there was nothing important in the box. There was a white regular envelope in it, with someone else's name scrawled on it hurriedly, containing one or two old rings that had little value. Sentimental, I'm sure. And none of my mother's rings. She had at least, well, they were worth a lot of money. Gone.

The rest of the story I think you know. I brought her here to live, and I took care of her 24/7, and was thankful that I was given that time to be with her. I was very happy when she was here. I had to change my life, including no work on my Lizzie book for a year, but it had to be. The only part I didn't like was when she'd try to do things she wasn't able to and would fall, and it would scare me. She was here 12 months, and one day she had something like a heart attack that weakened her so that she could not get out of bed by herself. Then we had to get her into the lovely nursing home she is in now. She is fine there, doesn't love it but enjoys it as much as one can in that circumstance. I don't worry about her at all, and we make it a point to see her when we can.

I don't think a lot of people are aware of things like the Guardian Company, or the two social workers you encountered, SallyG. Who would think such things existed in today's day and age? Horrible, horrible exploitation of the elderly. I hope our posts are read and remembered.

[SallyG]

Unfortunately, these things are not the exception...they are sadly the rule these days.

My mothers sister is in a nursing home and it's a very nice one...probably the best one in that area. And the nursing assistants, GNA's, etc., steal her blind.

My mother framed an old family photo for my aunt's nightstand in an inexpensive frame, and 2 days later the frame was gone and the photo propped agaist a box of kleenex. At least they did not take that. The steal the jewelry from around her neck when she is sleeping, they stole the watch off her wrist.

They even steal her underwear!!! I would love someone to tell me what kind of person steals an elderly persons UNDERWEAR!!!

Why can these people not come to work, do their job, and not steal the property of these poor old people? Why?

When I moved to Florida in August, I went in to see my aunt...I figured she's in frail condition and it may be the last time. Someone had stolen her cross from around her neck and she was upset about it. I had one in my purse...my husband put it in there...so I took it out and put it around her neck. It was just a cheap one. But how much do you want to bet it was gone within a week?

I just don't understand it.