California elder abuse attorney

July 8, 2016

Elder Abuse Victims Remain Silent Too Often

In order to stop nursing home abuse or to remove California seniors from assisted-living facilities where they have suffered serious injuries as a result of elder neglect, we need to know that this kind of abuse is occurring. However, according to a recent report in California Healthline, the silence surrounding elder abuse is one of the biggest barriers to helping seniors who have been victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. The report emphasizes that, when it comes to elder abuse, “one of the hardest parts about prosecuting and curbing it is that the victims are often too embarrassed or scared to speak up.” The California Healthline report cites an article in the Modesto Bee that clarifies that problem of silence in relation to nursing home abuse in California.

Victims Do Not Always Want to Report Abuse

In Modesto, CA alone, the Modesto Police have investigated 30 cases of elder abuse this year. According to the article, there are “dozens more throughout Stanislaus County,” and those numbers do not even begin to take into account the number of cases that have been reported in San Diego County or in other parts of the state.

May 6, 2016

Learning More About California’s Elder Neglect Laws

by Walton Law Firm

We often discuss cases of nursing home abuse and neglect in San Diego, and in facilities throughout the state of California. But when we talk about filing an elder abuse or neglect lawsuit, what exactly do we mean? In other words, what elements must be present in order to have a valid elder neglect claim? To better understand how suspicions of nursing home abuse or neglect can result in a lawsuit, we should take a closer look at both the signs of neglect, as well as the elements of the laws that prohibit it.

Recognizing Signs of Elder Neglect

Before we look at the specific elements of neglect and abuse outlined by the California Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, we should take a look at the signs and symptoms of neglect and physical abuse. A fact sheet from the Administration on Aging (AoA) lists the following as signs and symptoms of elder neglect:

August 20, 2014

Assisted Living Reforms Are Not Enough, Some Advocates Say

by Walton Law Firm

Many of us have heard about assisted living facility reforms pending before the California legislature, as well as those aimed specifically at residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs). But are those reforms sufficient to ensure that California seniors are safe from elder abuse? According to a recent story from KQED’s State of Health, many elder justice advocates in California do not believe the reforms are going to do enough.

Recent History of Elder Abuse in San Diego

According to Deborah Schoch, an advocate with the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, the number of assisting living facilities in our state essentially doubled over the last 25 years. For whom are these facilities designed? According to Schoch, they are intended for older, healthy adults who are “relatively independent.” Yet many of these facilities have taken in patients who require much more extensive levels of care, and assisted living facilities “are not designed to deliver skilled nursing care.”

July 15, 2014

Liquid Nutritional Substances and Nursing Home Neglect

by Walton Law Firm

Many of us in the San Diego area have seen commercials for liquid nutritional supplements, particularly those marketed toward older adults. According to a story in the New York Times, these bottles have become “staples in older people’s refrigerators, in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and in hospitals.” As such, it’s only logical to assume that these liquid supplements are healthy and can even benefit the elderly.

However, a recent set of recommendations from the American Geriatrics Society suggested that these drinks aren’t as beneficial as their manufacturers would like us to believe. Indeed, replacing elderly adults’ meals with these liquid supplements may even rise to the level of nursing home neglect.

Dangers of Boost, Ensure, and Other Supplement Drinks for the Elderly

May 27, 2014

New Scams Targeting the Elderly

by Walton Law Firm

California Seniors and Fraudulent Telephone Calls

Older adults are becoming especially susceptible to elder financial abuse, and a recent article in the San Mateo Daily Journal suggests that police have noticed a “rise in fraudulent telephone scams that target seniors.” Elder abuse can take many different forms, and scammers often prey upon older adults who aren’t familiar with new financial technologies and have money saved. And this form of abuse can occur anywhere—at the home of a caregiver or at a nursing home. For example, we recently wrote about a financial abuse scheme at a Palo Alto care community for the elderly.

What have some of the recent scams looked like? According to the San Francisco police, there’s a new telephone scam in California in which an older adult receives a phone call from a person who claims to be a paralegal who is calling from the Attorney general’s office. The caller then tells the elderly victim that there’s “a warrant for her arrest” and that she’ll need to “pay a fee by using a Vanilla prepaid cash card, or risk being sent to jail.” When the scam first was reported by a woman in South San Francisco, the victim described the caller as having a “Russian accident.”

April 9, 2014

Online Map to Track Elder Financial Abuse

by Walton Law Firm

Elder abuse and nursing home neglect are crimes that aren’t confined to physical or emotional abuse. In fact, every year many older Americans become victims of financial mistreatment. A recent article in the New York Times reports that the AARP has developed a new interactive online tool—a map of sorts—to prevent fraudulent practices that target the elderly. The tool is available to California seniors and older adults across the country.

Are you concerned that your elderly loved one has been the victim of financial elder abuse? It’s very important to contact an experienced elder law attorney as soon as possible. Elderly financial abuse can prevent Americans from living comfortably during old age, and even worse, fraudulent schemes can prevent older adults from being able to pay for nursing home care or other expensive treatments they might require. At the Walton Law Firm, we have significant experience handling many different types of elder abuse claims. An elder justice advocate at our firm can talk with you today.

AARP’s Fraud Watch Network Map