Ex-employer is trying to get me black listed and I am considering leaving the industry myself just to escape the nightmare

All I will say about what industry I am in is that I am in healthcare and I do a lot of in-community services. I just left my previous agency after a year of emotional abuse and constantly feeling like I was going to be fired without reason. This place was bad to the point that they wrote me up for having a medical emergency while on the job and told me I was “unprofessional” because I passed out (mind you I was in a location where there were others who had eyes on my client and no harm came to the person, I was the only one who suffered). They are known for going after people who leave the company and harassing other providers, especially if they feel like they “stole” their clients.

I left a few months ago and when I left, possibly the best provider I have ever met in this field and a supervisor left with me. I did not tell any of my clients where I was going because I know that the previous agency had already caused massive issues with others for supposed poaching (I have no comment on the validity of these claims since I was not really familiar with those in the situation). Still, one client managed to find me because they begged someone I was coworkers with to tell them where I had gone and they transferred as soon as they figured out where I ended up. My new agency has been very nice but myself and the three others I worked with at the previous agency (there was an additional person who left a few months before I did) joke that we all had trauma from the last place because we constantly expect our new boss to react the way our old boss did to things despite knowing better. I have been mostly content with my new position and I have enjoyed almost all of my clients.

I thought that leaving behind the old agency would mean being done with them outside of possible run ins while out in the community. Ex-agency has a particularly nasty employee who is known for making up reasons to report people to the state or other health governing bodies and she tried right after I left to report me to the state for violating professional ethics because I told a client from her agency to leave my client alone because he was harassing my client to the point of tears. I was not mean but I did not leave room for argument. Thankfully no one she tried to bully into giving false reports agreed to lie for her. Well, this week I was with my client from that past agency that found me and he saw said not-very-kind employee while we were out. I try not to drag my clients into this whole drama and so when he wanted to say hi and interact because he was excited to see her, I gave them a respectful distance and watched. I wanted to leave as soon as she showed up but I was trying to be professional because I knew she would make a scene about me not letting him say hi.

I got a call today from my current boss saying that the president of my ex-employer had emailed her with accusations from a staff member that I was neglecting my client (highly, highly illegal, especially because my client does not have capacity to care for himself independently and cannot be unsupervised) and had allowed him to hurl objects at others. I’ve been a bit distraught since the call because I didn’t know how to explain that this person is known by everyone who has ever worked with her as someone who will lie to take others out. I’ve been advised by friends to sue, and honestly I should have in the past given the disability discrimination I faced from them (whole other can of worms). It is entirely my word against hers though and I am honestly so exhausted that I want to quit and just move away to another part of the country before they fully ruin my record. Everyone who I’ve spoken to that knows her has confirmed that she is working with my ex-boss to do all of this and that she is going after me rather than my other coworkers because they’re more well connected in the field and they are all two income households so if they were booted from the field they’d still be able to mostly land on their field. I’ve only been out of college a year and I live alone. If I was suddenly unemployed I would end up homeless because my savings are a bit of a mess because of some emergencies that happened last month. I don’t want cruel people to win in this situation but idk where to even begin. I could maybe find a job in another field and try to save up to move out of the area (it is too small for my ex-employer not to find me if they really tried though) but where I am is literally the best paying job I could be in with my education and the region I live in. Really I guess I just need to scream into the void somewhere. I am so, so heartbroken. Things were starting to be alright again after a long time of just blow after blow in my life. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to never take that job with the ex-agency or at the very least have isolated myself to stay out of the the cross hairs. Any words of wisdom would be helpful right now for those who might have them.