On paper, today’s announcement reads like a celebration. Michelle Branham, Secretary of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, has been named to a powerful national role as a public member—now leading—the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The announcement, made by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., came with glowing language and applause.
But for families in Florida who have begged—quietly and persistently—for help, this moment lands like a gut punch.
Florida says it cares about seniors. In many ways, it does. Yet for years, the most vulnerable elders—those caught in the probate system—have been left exposed to a quiet, devastating abuse that keeps repeating itself. Caregivers siphoning savings. Homes and land disappearing. Estates dismantled. Families priced out of justice. Judges unchecked. Lawyers either unwilling to fight the system or willing only at fees so steep most families simply surrender.
This isn’t rumor. It’s pattern.
Time and again, stories have been written. Calls have been made. Meetings requested. Emails sent. Families have shown up—desperate, informed, and pleading for leadership—to the very department charged with protecting elders. And time and again, the response has been silence, deflection, or polite indifference.
That’s what makes today so hard to swallow.
Because while press releases celebrate “care” and “services,” Florida’s probate courts remain a place where abuse can flourish in plain sight—and where victims learn, often too late, that no one powerful is coming to help them. The Department of Elder Affairs has had years to use its voice, its platform, and its authority to shine a light on this stain. It has not.
Instead, we watch another rung added to a personal ladder of success.
How does a leader sleep at night knowing families were ignored—phone calls unanswered, texts unseen, visits brushed off—while careers advanced and accolades piled up? We all know the type: the office climber who smiles, shakes hands, gives speeches, collects titles… and never meaningfully serves the people they were appointed to protect.
Florida’s elderly deserve better than optics. They deserve action.
If this new national platform is to mean anything, it should come with accountability—starting with a hard look at probate abuse, judicial overreach, and the financial devastation inflicted on seniors and their families. Because Alzheimer’s care, elder dignity, and protection from exploitation don’t stop at research panels and advisory councils. They live—or die—in courtrooms, guardianships, and the everyday realities families are navigating right now.
So no, we can’t offer congratulations today.
What we can offer is a demand: that leadership finally turn toward the people who have been screaming into the void. That Florida stop pretending this isn’t happening. And that those elevated to national prominence prove—at last—that they are willing to stand up for the elders who never had a lobbyist, a press release, or a career boost to offer in return.
Until probate abuse is confronted head-on and families see real protection instead of polished press releases, promotions like this aren’t progress — they’re a grotesque reminder that in Florida, climbing the ladder still matters more than stopping the theft of elders’ lives, homes, and dignity.
