ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Nursing Home Residents At Growing Risk of Neglect and Abuse
Watching for Signs of Neglect and Abuse
How Elder Abuse Counsel Can Help
Elder laws protect all seniors and their assets. This includes protection for seniors living in a nursing home facility. In these settings, there is always the possibility that the senior is neglected or abused by a staff member, and during the pandemic that risk has increased as homes are increasingly understaffed, and the residents unvisited by families who might detect neglect or abuse. But these institutionalized seniors have important rights under California law and have enhanced remedies available to them for their wrongs. See Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15657 et seq. The Napa County nursing home abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. fight for aggrieved seniors and will pursue all remedies available under law, which include recovery of attorneys’ fees and expenses for bringing your elder abuse case. Call us today at 415-441-8669, and we can help.
What are the Signs of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect?
The signs of nursing home abuse range from sudden violence (hitting or slapping patients or shoving them) to abandonment or neglect which manifests as malnutrition, infection from bedsores/pressure wounds, dehydration, over- or undermedication, or injuries sustained from wandering off premises also known as elopement. All of these forms of abuse and neglect – from violence or sexual assault to abandonment and neglect – can be fatal to seniors. Abused seniors, whether institutionalized or not and regardless of whether the abuse or neglect is extreme, have much higher mortality rates than those seniors who suffer no abuse. In other words, every act of abuse or neglect takes a heavy toll on older persons. The most common signs of abuse or neglect include bedsores/pressure wounds, bruises, medication overdoses, personality changes, withdrawal, excess drowsiness, weight loss, skin problems, lack of hygiene, or other manifestations of neglect. strains.
Recourse For Injured Patients
By law, nursing homes must notify the family at any time that the patient falls or sustains any injuries. The administrator must explain to the family how the accident happened. However, when it comes to abusive staff members, they will try to hide these injuries and will not report them. Further, in understaffed homes, lack of supervision may lead to neglect going undetected as when aides skip serving meals, skip scheduled bathing, or turning and changing bedridden and incontinent patients. All of these problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic because families cannot visit their loved ones in persons and see the telltale signs of neglect. Many families have reacted to these restrictions by removing their older loved ones from homes and bringing them to live with them. That is not an option for all families, however. Other families have installed surveillance cameras in their loved one’s rooms and families have been able to intercede when they have witnessed abuse or neglect on film. Still other families monitor loved ones through Facetime or Zooms or by speaking directly with a caregiver or aide whom they can trust. However you check in on an older loved one in a nursing home or other care facility, if you suspect any problem call elder abuse counsel right away.
Contact Us
Ingrid M. Evans and the other nursing home abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm represent seniors throughout Napa and all over the State of California in standing up to any individuals or businesses, including nursing homes, who abuse or neglect seniors. If you need help, call Ingrid and our other Napa elder lawyers today at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Ingrid and our other elder abuse attorneys will pursue all available remedies for injured seniors including recovery of attorneys’ fees and expenses for bringing your lawsuit. Our litigators also have years of experience with false claims whistleblower cases especially in the health care field and can represent individuals with information of fraud in bringing their case in the best posture for a possible reward for their efforts if the government recovers money paid our due to fraud.
