Articles Posted in Elder Abuse

As the Baby Boomers grow older, it is becoming more and more important to have options in senior care. The needs of California’s seniors vary greatly, from those who may just need a little extra help around the home to those who are ill and need round-the-clock care. Assisted living facilities are a terrific option for those who are unable to live independently but do not need the services of a nursing home. Sadly, the problems commonly referred to as “nursing home abuse” can also affect residents of these intermediate care facilities. In addition to representing the victims of abuse in assisted care facilities, our San Francisco elder care attorney supports measures aimed at preventing abuse from occurring in the first place, a view consistent with our overarching philosophy that prevention should always come first.

California Legislators Eye Reforms to Assisted Living Facility Regulations

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a group of California lawmakers is working to enact changes to the rules for licensing assisted care facilities in the state, including providing improved public access to complaint files and increased training requirements. State Senator Mark Leno and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner are among those who have introduced bills addressing senior residential care concerns. Overall, more than a dozen bills are part of the reform package spurred in part by the events at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley where the facility “closed” with more than a dozen residents left behind. Although costs have not yet been determined, Leno believes the money will be found.

Our team continues to be concerned about the threat of elder abuse. We are glad to see that this problem has been getting more attention. Sadly, that attention does not seem to translate directly into a willingness to report and pursue legal cases against those who commit elder abuse. We understand the hesitancy to bring criminal charges, especially when the abuser is someone close to the senior. While we do believe the criminal prosecution of offenders is important, our Northern California elder abuse law firm also urges victims to consider a civil elder abuse claim which can allow them to recover monetary damages and put a stop to abuse without the added tension of a criminal charge.

Report Uncovers Reluctance to Bring Elder Abuse Charges

A report carried by Yahoo Canada last month focused on the small percentage of elder abuse investigations that eventually result in criminal charges in Canadian courts. Researchers found that out of 453 allegations of elder abuse handled by police in Ottawa during a five year span, only 17% resulted in actual charges. This is substantially lower than average, with 25% of probes across the board resulting in charges.

It was less than a month ago that we first reported on the disturbing events at Valley Springs Manor, the Castro Valley elder care home that “closed” with more than a dozen residents still inside. As we noted in conjunction with that story, elder abuse is becoming increasingly widespread with caregiver neglect ranking as one of the leading forms of the problem. One of the most disturbing forms of neglect, caregiver abandonment, made the news again this week. Sadly, our Oakland elder abandonment attorney has come across many cases of seniors who are unable to care for themselves due to physical and/or cognitive problems being left alone by either paid or unpaid (ex. family) caregivers. Family, friends, and community members should be aware that elder abandonment is a very real problem and should not hesitate to reach out for help if they suspect a senior has been abandoned for any length of time.

Elderly Man Found at 3 A.M.

Early Sunday morning police in Vallejo arrested a Brentwood man on allegations of elder abuse. As reported in the Oakland Tribune, residents in the 600 block of Alabama Street contacted police shortly after 3 A.M. to report a man banging on doors and asking to be let in to the homes. When officers arrived they found an older man, who had urinated and defecated himself, lying on the ground. The man was unresponsive but breathing.

Elder abuse attorney Gregory J. Brod was among the many Bay Area residents who were dismayed by the news last week that an elder care facility in Castro Valley was responsible for abandoning 19 residents for eight days, prompting the state to order the shuttering of the Valley Springs Manor. And now, Sacramento has also decided to essentially take over another assisted living facility owned by the same group that was linked to the Castro Valley scandal.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, officials with the state Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division stepped in to assume control of the Sundial Palms Assisted Living & Memory Care center in Modesto, with the state agency monitoring the facility around the clock and mandating that the owner hire a consultant from Sacramento to act as an executive director while the care home awaits a change in ownership this month.

The spokesman for the department, Michael Weston, stated that the “highly unusual” move by his agency was as a result of the incident in Castro Valley, where all but two members of the staff – a janitor and a cook, both untrained in the care of the elderly – walked away from the facility and left the 19 residents to their own devices. Unlike in the Castro Valley scandal, where the state ordered the elder care home to be closed, the state has opted to keep the Modesto elder home open while proactively intervening. The state is also in the process of revoking the license of the owner of both homes, Herminigilda “Hilda” Manuel, to operate any elder care facilities.

Unfortunately, if one thinks that elder care abuse is an isolated problem in the United States, statistics clearly show otherwise. Here are some of the disquieting statistics on elder and nursing home abuse compiled by the National Center on Elder Abuse:

• Ninety-one percent of nursing homes lack adequate staff to properly care for residents.
• Thirty-six percent of nursing homes have been in violation of elderly abuse laws
• There were 5,961,568 documented cases of elder abuse in 2010
• Fully 9.5 percent of the elderly population was abused in 2010
• Neglect represents the biggest form of elder abuse, accounting for 58.5 percent of all reported cases
• Physical abuse accounts for 15.7 percent of all reported elder abuse cases
• Financial exploitation is involved in 12.3 percent of all reported elder abuse cases
• Emotional abuse is involved in 7.3 percent of all reported elder abuse cases

Continue Reading ›

It was a story that disturbed us the first time around and the story has gotten even worse as more facts are uncovered. In a recent blog post, we wrote about the Alameda County assisted-living center that “closed,” leaving residents behind when management and most of the staff left. More details have emerged since our first report, details that make the story even more disturbing. The developing story has brought in an important issue in the elder care arena – wandering by elderly individuals, particularly those with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Wandering is a major concern for care providers and our Northern California elder abuse law firm encourages family members to report any facility that does not actively work to prevent wandering and keep residents safe.

Assisted Care Center Residents Abandoned in Alameda County, One Missing

As officials have stepped up their probe of Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley, it appears that residents were actually left without paid caregivers (a few staff members stayed despite being unpaid) for up to eight days, not three as originally reported. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that about 30 residents were at the home when the Department of Social Services posted a closure notice on October 21, giving the facility 72 hours to close due to health and safety concerns. However, it appears that workers began leaving on the 18th when management told them that they would no longer be paid. By the closure date, 19 residents remained, abandoned by management and most of the staff. It does appear that the state was supposed to ensure residents were transferred or picked up by family.

As a San Francisco nursing home abuse law firm, we have seen far too many cases involving the neglect and maltreatment of vulnerable individuals. The law is supposed to help prevent these cases, but a recent headline draws attention to dangerous gaps in both law and practice of senior care in California. In this post, we present a story in which many people contributed to a shocking case of nursing home abuse. However, we cannot present this story without also noting the story’s heroes, people who chose to act with compassion and heart when they saw dangerous neglect and who refused to be part of the problem.

Paramedics Discover Residents Abandoned at Closed Senior Care Center

Reporters with The San Francisco Chronicle are following an unfolding story of a system that placed the residents of a Castro Valley assisted living facility in danger. California’s Department of Social Services ordered the closure of Valley Manor Residential Care, located at 17926 Apricot Way, effective Thursday October 24. Details relating to the closure process, including the role of the Department and the center’s management, remain to be discovered (Note: A later report carried by ABC cites the Department’s complaint which details a history of violations at the facility, including severe understaffing). However, it appears that most of the staff left the facility on or prior to Thursday’s closure date. On Saturday, according to Alameda County sheriff’s deputies, paramedics were called to the site. Upon arrival, they found the posted closure notice on the door. Inside, they found fourteen sick and elderly patients still living in the building.

California, as in all other states, there are laws in place that were crafted to prevent elder abuse in nursing homes. Unfortunately, however, elder abuse still occurs in this state, and, in spite of some high-profile horror stories of wrongdoing against the elderly in convalescent homes, public advocacy or investigative group studies show that many such cases go unreported or, at best, quickly reviewed and then set aside by regulators.

Shocking Death Foreshadows Key Measure
At least one notorious recent case of elder abuse has been instrumental in prompting additional legislation to help improve the lot of senior citizens in nursing homes. In the wake of the Feb. 26, 2013, case of Lorraine Bayless, 87, who collapsed and then died in a Bakerfield convalescent home after the staff there stated that they could not perform CPR on her, the state Legislature has passed a bill that would forbid employees of retirement homes from not taking such life-saving measures as CPR on retirement home residents. The measure in on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown awaiting his signature.

Beyond the well-known instances of neglect, however, there are a significant number of cases of suspected violence and alleged misconduct by staff members at nursing homes in California. Worse still, according to a study filed by the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, state regulators are hastily opening and closing probes into suspected elder abuse without ever leaving their desks. According to the report, in 2009, the Department of Public Health ordered department investigators to dismiss almost 1,000 pending cases of misconduct, a move that apparently had been prompted by a ballooning backlog of cases. In the wake of the DPH directive, the overwhelming majority of cases in which abuse or misconduct has been alleged have been closed without the state taking action. Not surprisingly, Sacramento has also significantly reduced the number of license revocations for nursing home employees suspected of abuse and misconduct.

Abuse Comes in Varied Guises, Has Multiple Causes
The causes of nursing home abuse, which can include physical, mental or financial abuse – the most common form of physical abuse suffered by patients are beatings, sexual assaults and forced feedings of food or medicine – are largely centered around a few well-known factors. Typically, abuse at convalescent homes arises from understaffed facilities, overworked employees, stressful working conditions and inadequate training. In many instances these factors result in employee burnout, which, in turn, causes nursing home staff members to lose empathy and patience for the residents of these facilities, and then to manifest itself in the form of neglect or abuse. All convalescent homes receiving federal funds are governed by the Nursing Home Reform Act, which mandates that a nursing home perform an evaluation of each resident and to prepare and execute a customized “plan of care” reflecting the optimum mental and physical treatment for each resident.
Continue Reading ›

We believe that change often takes the commitment of the community. We are certain that confronting the problem of elder abuse requires people being willing to listen when someone is asking for help, even if it isn’t said in those words. It also requires people being willing to speak and report suspicions. A case caught the attention of our San Francisco elder abuse lawyer, a disturbing case that shows the interplay of physical mistreatment, elder neglect, and financial fraud. The story is also a reminder that abuse can occur anywhere and that reporting concerns can help bring a victim’s nightmare to an end.

Police Find Elderly Men Held Captive and Forced to Sign Over Benefit Checks

Last Friday, as covered by Reuters news service, police in Houston acted on a tip that people were being held captive in a private house. Kees Smith, a Houston police spokesperson, reported that officers found four elderly men being held in a room in the garage of a North Houston home. Located behind a double-locked door, the room contained no beds, no toilets, and only a single chair. The captive victims, all men, included an 80 year old, a 74 year old, and a man in his 50s. Police did not release the age of the fourth man.