Article Views:
114
Ezine ready page
Ezine ready page
Posted on December 11, 2008 by DietrichElliot | Posted under Legal
Elder Abuse, Los Angeles and the Law
|
Elder Abuse is an actionable offense. An expert Personal Injury Attorney in Los Angeles specializing in Elder Abuse can help you navigate the road to prosecution and justice. If you've ever cared for an elderly relative, it's easy to see why they are so vulnerable. Dementia can often make an older person incapable of self-defense, or even incapable of recognizing abuse. Fear of authority and retribution can keep nursing home residents from reporting abuse. Lonely elderly people tend to put their trust in caregivers even as they are being victimized. Experts believe that 4%-6% of the elder population, a whopping 2.1 million, is suffering some kind of abuse. Surprisingly, most Elder abuse happens at home, not in institutions like nursing homes. Here, it becomes a complex issue of familial relations and a growing frailty of the elder. What an elder might once have tolerated for a lifetime, now poses an imminent danger to him or her. Elder abuse generally falls under three headings: - emotional abuse - physical abuse (including sexual abuse and neglect) - financial abuse Emotional Elder Abuse is, perhaps, the most insidious. It leaves no physical marks but can be just as devastating. Emotional Elder Abuse by care providers, frustrated by an elderly patient's inability to fend for himself, can sometimes result in verbal Elder Abuse that cows an older person with fear. Because they are completely dependent on a caregiver, the elderly patient will typically not fight back, but will simply take the abuse. Emotional Elder Abuse can have devastating health effects on the elderly just as it might on a small child. That's why Elder Abuse Attorneys in Los Angeles advise you to first protect elders from unscrupulous abusers by interceding on their behalf. Then, report abuse to the proper authorities. Then contact a Los Angeles Elder Abuse Attorney to find out your rights. Physical abuse of the elderly tends to be more visible. Physical abuse can range from slapping, shoving and hitting to shocking cases of restraint, using chains or ropes. Neglect also falls under this heading. Neglect happens when a caregiver fails to provide for the senior's basic needs, such as water, food, medical assistance, shelter, personal hygiene, and/ or keeping the senior comfortable with air conditioning or heating. Excessively medicating seniors or allowing them to remain in bed on one position can cause life-threatening bedsores. What are some of the danger signs that an elderly person may be experiencing physical Elder Abuse? - sudden , unexplained weight loss, - the senior's personal hygiene has obviously gotten worse, - indications of dehydration, bedsores, and/or malnutrition are present, - a care giver isolates elder who is unable to freely spend time with others or is afraid of care giver, - bruises around wrists or arms, - refusal to visit an emergency room for repeated injuries. If you see any of these signs in a loved one, take steps immediately to protect that senior. Investigate the problems and report abuse to authorities. An Elder Abuse Attorney can assist you in navigating the legal ramifications of this kind of abuse. Financial Elder Abuse is the third component to elder abuse that Los Angeles Elder Abuse Attorneys see all too often. For example, in Los Angeles, a young stockbroker befriended a newly widowed elderly woman who had no children and talked her into making him the trustee of her estate. Over the next few years, he encouraged her to transfer nearly all of her assets to him, leaving her virtually penniless. Her nephew in another state suspected something illegal was going on and contacted an Elder Abuse Attorney in Los Angeles to manage her estate. After a forensic accounting of her estate, they discovered the fraud and recovered the millions the stockbroker stole and brought charges against the man. These sorts of scenarios go on all the time and not just in Los Angeles. Why? Because the elderly are vulnerable, easy targets. They are unsure who to trust, or what advice to take. Young, friendly professional-seeming scam artists can easily seduce an elderly victim into turning over his or her entire life savings, then vanish, leaving the senior destitute. So what will really happen if you merely contact authorities? Even when the state prosecutes caregivers or nursing homes, the fines imposed and the settlements reached are small. And the tragedy is, nothing changes. Bad nursing homes have little to fear from these state-imposed fines. They make huge profits. The state will also not help you recover the money you or the elder lost to scam artists. The only way to stop this kind of elder abuse is to contact an expert Elder Abuse Attorney who knows your rights and fights for them. This is the only way to affect real change, to collect damages suffered and to make sure this never happens to another hapless senior. About The Author: Dietrich Elliot is a freelance writer, teacher and retired Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney. He writes about Personal Injury Law as it pertains to Los Angeles, the city in which he lives. You can contact Mr. Elliot by emailing him at: DietrichElliot@aol.com. |
Tags: LOS ANGELES ELDER ABUSE ATTORNEY, ELDER ABUSE, PHYSICAL ABUSE, LOS ANGELES PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY, LOS ANGELES PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER.
