Articles Tagged with California nursing home abuse lawyer

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Whether you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home in Santa Clara or elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is important for you to understand the risks associated with wandering. Wandering is a particular issue for elderly nursing home residents who have Alzheimer’s disease, another form of dementia, or other cognitive impairments. As such, if your elderly parent or loved one has been diagnosed with any disease or condition that involves cognitive impairment and they are currently living in a nursing home, you should learn more about wandering and how the facility can be liable when it happens. Our Santa Clara nursing home neglect attorneys can tell you more, and we can speak with you today about filing a claim to hold the facility accountable.

What is Wandering in a Nursing Home Context?

Nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are at risk of “wandering.” The term can have a range of meanings, according to a study in the journal Practical Neurology, but it is one that is applied to “dementia-related locomotion activities.” What does this mean? 

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Falls are a serious problem for older adults in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Sonoma County and throughout the Bay Area. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), falls result in serious mobility limitations for about 10 percent of all older adults every year. Falls are responsible for more than 80 percent of hip fracture deaths among the elderly, and they are the reason for nearly 90 percent of emergency department visits for older adults. Falls are also the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries among older nursing home residents.

If you have an elderly loved one in a Bay Area nursing home or assisted living facility, what fall hazards should you be looking for when you visit the facility? Our Sonoma County nursing home neglect attorneys can explain in more detail below.

Physical Conditions That Can Result in Falls

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Will you be visiting an elderly loved one in an Orange County nursing home this holiday season? If so, it is important to keep an eye out for any potential signs of nursing home abuse or neglect. Thanksgiving and the weeks leading up to Christmas and the New Year are often the time of year when elderly nursing home residents receive the most visitors. It may also be the only time of the year that you get to visit with your elderly parent or grandparent, so it is essential to do your best to ensure that your loved one is happy, healthy, and safe in their current environment.

What should you be thinking about as you plan for your visit with your elderly loved one who is currently residing in a Southern California nursing home? Consider the following from our nursing home neglect lawyers in Orange County.

Discuss Your Visit with Friends and Family Members Ahead of Time

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Moving a family member into a nursing home in San Diego County can be an emotionally difficult process for your loved one, as well as for yourself. There are many news reports about horrific incidents of nursing home abuse or neglect that result in severe and deadly harm to nursing home residents, and it can be difficult to know if you have done enough research and made the right decision for the elderly person you love. An important way of being sure that your loved one’s nursing home has taken proper safety precautions is to make a checklist and to bring it with you to the facility. The following is helpful information to include on your checklist.

What You Should Put on Your Nursing Home Safety Checklist

Even the most expensive nursing homes can have problems with abuse, neglect, and negligence. Likewise, even facilities with no history of safety violations can have problems arise. What should you be looking for when you visit a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility? It can be helpful to make a detailed checklist that you can use during each and every visit. That checklist may include a wide range of signs or indicators of abuse, neglect, or negligence (or risk factors for abuse or negligence), including the following:

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Older adults in Orange County nursing homes should always expect to be treated with dignity and respect, and they should also be able to expect that nursing homes are employing a sufficient number of staff to provide for the individual needs of residents. Yet, much too often, nursing homes do not provide the quality of care that they promise to provide. As a result of nursing home abuse — including intentional acts of physical and emotional harm, as well as sexual abuse — and nursing home neglect or negligence, Southern California nursing home residents suffer serious and sometimes deadly injuries. Families are often taught to be aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse or neglect, including physical and psychological warning signs about an elderly loved one’s well-being. 

We often think about nursing home abuse as intentional harm and neglect as a failure to provide care due to understaffing, for example, yet there are some cases in which nursing home neglect is intentional. In other words, staff members might make intentional decisions to withhold care in order to deprive elderly residents of the assistance they need or the medications on which they rely. Our Orange County nursing home neglect lawyers can explain in more detail.

Understanding Willful Deprivation in Southern California Nursing Homes

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Nursing home and assisted living facility residents, as a result of age and certain underlying conditions, can be at greater risk of certain types of wounds and other injuries. Skin tears are among those, and when they are not properly treated, they can result in serious and even life-threatening infections. While skin tears on their own may not be the result of nursing home negligence or neglect, serious infections that result from them can be. When skin tear wounds do lead to severe infections, it is essential to seek advice from a San Diego County nursing home neglect lawyer who can help. 

A recent report in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News discusses a new study concerning skin tears and risk factors among nursing home residents. Our San Diego County nursing home injury lawyers can tell you more. 

What Are Skin Tears?

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As recent wildfires began to spread quickly in various parts of Los Angeles County and throughout Southern California, many residents of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in affected areas were evacuated. According to data from the California Department of Public Health, nearly 1,000 residents of nursing homes and residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) were evacuated as a result of fire risks. At the same time, not all facilities took steps to evacuate residents or to account for resident safety. 

Indeed, a recent report from NBC Los Angeles described a 96-year-old nursing home resident in her room who could see the Eaton Fire burning nearby, outside her window. The facility where that resident lived had been evacuated, but she was left in her room. Other similar news stories told of residents in Southern California left behind in nursing home evacuations, or unable to leave nursing homes where evacuations did not occur properly. What duties do nursing homes and assisted-living facilities owe residents in the event of wildfires or other environmental hazards? Consider the following information from our Los Angeles County nursing home negligence lawyers.

Nursing Homes Must Have Preparations for Safe Evacuations

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Whether you have already made one or more visits to a loved one in the San Francisco Bay Area during the holiday season or you have plans for an upcoming visit, it is a particularly good time of the year to be on the lookout for any signs of elder abuse or neglect if your elderly loved one is living in a nursing home, a skilled nursing facility, an assisted-living facility, or any other type of residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) in California. The holiday season often involves multiple visits from family and adult children gathering to see their parents, which means adult children and other family members can work together to identify potential abuse or neglect risks.

Making a Plan to Focus on Your Elderly Loved One’s Safety 

During the holiday season — or during any time of the year when family members gather to see a loved one in a nursing home or assisted-living facility — it is helpful to make a plan to focus on health and safety. Sporadic visits at other times of the year may be relatively quick, and those visits may involve only one person stopping by an elderly parent’s nursing home room or assisted-living facility residence. When multiple family members are together, especially adult children, they can work together to consider injury risks at the nursing home or other facility and to pay particular attention to warning signs of abuse or neglect.

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Serious and fatal injuries can happen at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Los Angeles County for many different reasons. Some of those reasons involve intentionally bad acts, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse toward elderly residents or willful deprivation of elderly residents. Under other circumstances, older adults can sustain serious harm as a result of negligence. A staff member or the facility itself may not intend any harm, but because of issues like understaffing or employee burnout, the elderly residents might not receive the oversight and care they need to stay safe and healthy. The latter is often how choking injuries and deaths occur in nursing homes and other residential care facilities for the elderly in Southern California.

When a choking injury or death occurs, who is liable? Our Los Angeles nursing home negligence lawyers can explain in more detail.

Nursing Home Duty to Understand Choking Risks and to Take Precautions

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When a resident falls at a nursing home or assisted-living facility in Los Angeles County, who is accountable? And, perhaps more importantly, who is liable if the fallen resident does not receive quick and effective assistance, ultimately resulting in their injuries worsening? According to a recent report in The Washington Post, new data suggests that employees at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the country often refuse to lift residents who have fallen to avoid liability, instead calling emergency medical responders to lift the resident. By the time an emergency medical responder arrives, injuries from the fall may have worsened.

From liability to initial falls in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to injuries worsened by a lack of quick response time, it is important to know that the facility itself could be accountable. Our Los Angeles County nursing home neglect lawyers can tell you more.

Fall Hazards in Nursing Homes and Assisted-Living Facilities

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