Lodi Police Said Nurse Imposters Took Credit Card From Man
Sacramento Bee

Two women in Lodi, California were arrested earlier this week on suspicion of burglary, elder abuse, possession of stolen property, forgery, and felonious use of a credit card. Dressed in scrubs, these two women entered into an elderly man’s house and claimed to be hospital nurses. Police report that after being allowed inside, the women took the man’s wallet and left. The man reported the theft to his credit card company, and police apprehended the women at a JC Penney department store.

Deception is just one of the many forms of elder abuse that takes place on a daily basis in California and the rest of the United States. Posing as a qualified nurse or caregiver is a common occurrence within and outside of homes and institutions. Many incidents of caregiver theft and fraud occur when individuals pose as qualified caregivers with the intent to steal from or defraud elderly people. For more information on elder abuse in California, or if suspect you or a loved one have been targeted by caregiver fraud, contact the Evans Law Firm for a free and confidential consultation.

Hospital Efforts To Keep Elderly Strong

A startling statistic has recently come to light: at least one-third and up to two-thirds of hospital patients over the age of 70 leave the hospital weaker than they were when they arrived. This information, previously disregarded as an inevitable effect of the natural aging process, is now leading experts to challenge the way most hospitals conventionally treat their elder patients. Because the hospitals focus mainly on treating whatever ailment or disease that afflicts the elder patient, caregivers at the hospital often overlook important practices that an elder patient needs to prevent frailty.

Examples of practices that inadvertently harm elder patients are bed confinement, un-nutritious food offerings, and uncomfortable surroundings. Instead, medical experts say that hospitals should encourage exercise and work to provide a more comfortable and pleasant experience for its elder patients. In two hospitals that have begun to implement changes, volunteers accompany patients on daily walking sessions of 15 minutes.

The benefits from improving daily life and activity also counteract the detriments of bed rest and immobility. Bed rest can raise chances for infection and contribute to rapid muscle loss. Plastic wrapping of food can be a significant problem for people with arthritis. While some hospitals around the country – notably the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and Highlands Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama – have instituted elder-care units specifically to target these sorts of problems, most hospitals have not. It is essential that medical facilities begin to tailor their patient care to the needs of the elderly.

For more information on elder care and abuse in California, contact the Evans Law Firm for a free and confidential consultation.

$1.3 Million Judgment Against Torrance Assisted Living Facility For Elder Abuse
Financial Content

In September 2011, the Greenpark Villa, Inc. assisted living facility in Torrance, California was ordered to pay over $1.3 million in a judgment of an elder abuse case. The plaintiff was a victim of elder abuse and a client of Garcia, Artigliere & Schadrack.  Among the allegations in the case were those of elder abuse and wrongful death.

Greenpark Villa is an assisted living facility for the elderly, and defined by California law as a voluntary housing arrangement for an individual 60 years or older. The living facility is expected and obligated by law to provide a certain amount of care and supervision to its patient.

Plaintiff Walters, an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s, had fallen twice during her stay at Greenpark Villa, and was not sent to the hospital. After five months of severe pain and at her family’s insistence that she receive medical attention, it was found that she had fractured her hip in the second fall. Plaintiff also alleges that due to underfunding and understaffing, Walters’ Stage I pressure sore evolved into a stage IV pressure sore that became infected.

Elder care abuse and allegations of elder care abuse in assisted living facilities throughout California and the United States have grown alarmingly high. The country’s growing elderly population faces more risks today than ever before as elder abuse continues to be on the rise. Yet, support is available for those who have fallen prey to various forms of elder abuse. For a free and confidential consultation in California, contact the Evans Law Firm.

Charges of Elder Abuse, Negligence After Dementia Patient Dies of Exposure
Bay City News

The family of Kenneth Chin, an elderly dementia patient who died last February, filed a wrongful death suit against his conservator Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the transit agencies responsible for his transportation: MEDSAM Enterprises.  

After not returning home to his assisted living facility in San Francisco’s Richmond District on February 25, 2011, 73-year-old Chin was reported missing. His body was discovered on March 6 in Lincoln Park, and autopsy results indicated that he died from hypothermia.

Chin’s living relatives, represented by Ingrid Evans of the Evans Law Firm, gathered at a press conference on February 8, 2012. His niece Jennifer Chin said she remembered “lying awake at night, it was pouring and freezing… praying that he was indoors somewhere.”

Plaintiff alleges that the MEDSAM shuttle van negligently dropped Chin off at the wrong location, causing him to wander around San Francisco for days before succumbing to the elements in Lincoln Park. In addition, the conservator Jewish Family and Children’s Services did not notify Chin’s family that he was missing until three hours after the event – during which time it had grown dark, cold, and stormy. The family began a search immediately, but was significantly hindered by the delay and its consequences.

Chin says he brings this complaint in order to ensure that such wrongful negligence and tragedy never happen again.

In A Stupor: What California's Antipsychotic Drug Collaborative Reveals About Illegal Nursing Home Drugging -- A special report by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform

A new report by CANHR, the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, has found 147 violations of state rules regarding the use of antipsychhotics in residents in 24 nursing homes throughout California. CANHR characterizes the misuse of antipsychotic drugs as "rampant" and states that immediate reform is urgently necessary.

The agency claims that the overprescription and misuse of these antipsychotic drugs is one of the leading instances of elder abuse in nursing homes. The majority of the prescribed drugs are "off-label," meaning that they have not been FDA-approved to combat dementia. Several of the prescribed drugs can increase and almost double the risk of death in an elderly patient -- a fact that leads CANHR to say that these practices directly jeopardize the health and lives of elderly patients in nursing homes. After a drawn-out campaign by CANHR to stop the use of these drugs in nursing homes, the California Department of Public Health launched an investigation and recently published their results: 147 violations in 24 facilities across the state.

Although there was a variety of violations, most fell into one of three categories: failure to obtain informed consent from the residents or their responsible parties before prescribing medication; unnecessary and/or excessive use of drugs; and defiecient pharmaceutical consultant services.

According to CANHR, these findings reveal a "terrible problem" with regards to nursing home medical prescriptions. The investigation is a step in the right direction, but the Department of Public Health has more work to do to ensure that nursing homes provide the highest quality of care to their patients.

For more information on nursing home abuse, or if you or a family member has been the victim of nursing home abuse, contact the Evans Law Firm in California for a free and confidential consultation.

Editorial: Elder abuse on the rise with growing older population

The Herald-Dispatch

As the quality of healthcare and the average life expectancy in the United States has gone up, so too unfortunately has the incidence of elder abuse. The demographic of people 85 years and older is the fastest growing age group in the United States, and many of those people require various degrees and forms of elder care. To meet this demand, both honest and alleged elder care institutions have cropped up all across the country. As cases of fraud and abuse are on the rise because of these alleged elder care institutions, it is becoming more and more imperative for elders and their loved ones to learn how to prevent elder abuse and how to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent elder care providers.  

 

 Some examples of elder abuse in recent news and local headlines include caregiver theft, exploitation, and substandard care that puts the elder in physical danger. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, reported instances of abuse towards elders have increased by 20% from 2000 to 2006. Yet an even bigger issue – according to the Dr. Mark Lachs of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare system, is that most problems related to elder abuse are not even reported. An interview he conducted with 4,000 elders showed that only one out of thirteen incidences of elder abuse is detected and documented.

 

This is why, in today’s increasingly predatory climate, elder abuse prevention and awareness is as important as litigation and response. Not only elders, but their families, friends, and acquaintances should be on the lookout for signs of physical and financial abuse and neglect. These signs include but are not limited to: behavioral changes, unusual financial activity, or deteriorating healthcare with new caregivers or care providing institutions.

A New Year, New Laws
Camarillo Acorn

Among the hundreds of new state laws that will take effect in 2012 are a series that increase the punishment for elder abuse.

This effort to crackdown on elder abuse is an extremely important development in the ongoing struggle to eliminate elder abuse practices in California and the rest of the country. California has long been a pioneer in the area of elder law, and these recent laws are further indications of the state’s commitment to its elderly residents.

A list of the state laws is available at www.leginfo.ca.gov

Hundreds of Elder Abuse Cases in 2011
KULR-TV

Sarah Gravlee in Billings, Montana reports that the number of elder abuse cases is on the rise and will skyrocket over the next two decades. As the baby boomer generation enters into retirement, the number of senior citizens will rise, as will the number of senior citizens who fall prey to elder abuse.

These instances of abuse include physical and financial abuse. Examples of physical abuse include the refusal of family members or caregivers to pay for heat or electricity, leaving elder citizens cold and without power for months on end. In financial abuse cases, younger family members steal money from the elder’s Social Security checks.

According to this article, more than 1 million Americans over the age of 65 have been injured, exploited, or mistreated at some point by someone on whom they depended for care or protection.

While legal recourse is available for victims of elder abuse, a significant hurdle is the reluctance of victims to report the abuse. Denise Armstrong of Big Sky Senior Services says that only one in ten cases of elder abuse are reported; 90% are not. To respond to this crisis of secrecy, Big Sky Senior Services has begun educating the general public on issues of elder abuse. They have trained gatekeepers, bank tellers, meter readers, and mail carriers to detect and report instances of possible elder abuse. This new method of prevention provides allies in the community for potential victims of elder abuse, but does not diminish the importance of reporting abuse and seeking help. Instead, elderly victims should work with the community to report abuse in order to reduce the future number of abuses and victims.

 

Elder Abuse Pair Prepare for Hearing, Jury Trial in Bakersfield
Kern Valley Sun

In Kern County, 30-year-old Joseph McCoy and his 54-year-old mother Darlene Green took part in a Readiness Hearing at which they faced charges of causing harm or death to an elderly person. The person in question was Margaret Gray, Green’s mother and McCoy’s grandmother, who died on April 1, 2011.

On February 11, 2011 paramedics found Gray in her home suffering from bed sores and grade four ulcers, lying in her own bodily fluids with areas of her skin stuck to her bed sheets. Gray was then taken to the Kern Valley Hospital and treated in the emergency room for what the director, Dr. Manual Sacapano, called “the worst case of elder abuse I have ever seen.” Two months later, Gray died from cardio respiratory arrest, sepsis, and Alzheimer’s disease.

McCoy had been Gray’s primary caregiver since 1999. He and his mother are being held at the Lerdo pre-trial facility.

Deceptively passive in nature, neglect is one of the most harmful forms of elder abuse. To be designated a primary caregiver is to take on moral and legal responsibility for the healthcare and wellbeing of the elderly citizen. This and other tragic cases highlight the urgent necessity for legal recourse against caregiver abuse. With legal action, we can prevent further abuses and promote proper methods to ensure safety and comfort of the elderly. The Evans Law Firm in San Francisco, California represents elder victims of neglect and other physical and financial abuse.

Thanks for visiting the Evans Law blog.  Our hope is that in the coming weeks and months our blog can become a valuable resource on information related to our practice areas, including financial elder abuse, physical elder abuse, consumer fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud and personal injury.

If you have any suggestions for a topic, please do not hesitate to contact us via this website.  Thank you.