The Horror of Nursing Home Abuse

When we have to choose a nursing home for a loved one, we try to make sure it is a good place; a place to care for them and treat them with dignity and respect. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen.

Too often we assume that when we need to place a senior in a nursing home that the home’s staff and management will take care of them the way we would. You would treat your beloved elder with love and respect, dignity and empathy, and would never dream of withholding medications; isolating your loved one; shoving them around; leaving them unattended in their own waste; or trying to steal their money.

The facts show that currently over one and a half million seniors are placed in nursing homes for care. While this number may seem high to you, it is expected to triple within 30 years. This is largely due to the baby boomer generation coming of age; of age to require nursing home care. Shockingly, one in three nursing homes in the US have been cited for neglect or abuse despite the fact that the Nursing Home Reform Act (1987) says nursing home residents have the “right” to live somewhere that maintains or improves their physical and mental welfare.

The idea behind nursing homes is that they provide professional care to those who are having trouble caring for themselves. While that might be the theory, it appears that the reality is somewhat different and nursing home abuse is on the increase. We know this because of the latest cases going to court and articles in the newspapers and on TV. It’s not the ugly secret it once used to be, but it is still hidden from prying eyes when and where possible, and nursing home abuse is still ugly.

If you’re suspicious that something isn’t right at your loved one’s nursing home, start watching closely. If they are the victims of emotional, physical and psychological abuse, you will begin to see things such as radical mood swings, significant changes in behavior, unexplained burns, cuts, scrapes, lacerations, broken bones, and bruising in odd places.

If you notice other residents of the home with bed sores, suffering from bad hygiene, and the home in general is unclean, there are bound to be other signs of neglect if you look for them. If you have any doubts about what is going on and fear for the safety of your relative, speak to a dedicated Sacramento personal injury attorney with experience in this area.

You may notice that the home is short-staffed, which in turn jeopardizes your loved one’s health and safety. Sadly, this seems to be a common occurrence – running short each shift – because it saves money. You need to know, however, that nursing homes are ordered by the state and federal governments to live up to certain requirements, one of which is having an adequate number of staff present to care for the residents.

Just because someone lives in a nursing home does not mean they have surrendered their rights. Negligence and abuse is illegal and if your loved one is a victim of these insidious crimes, they may well be entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering. This is yet another reason to contact a skilled Sacramento personal injury attorney. Your attorney will outline the differences between neglect (failing to care for someone that prevents pain and harm) and abuse (inflicting intentional pain or harm).

Deborah Barron is a Sacramento business lawyer, Sacramento employment lawyer, and Sacramento winery lawyer in California. To learn more, visit Lawbarron.com.

The Non-Compete Agreement - A Tool for Employer Protection

Business law might look simple at first glance, but it’s far more complex than it appears. Non-compete agreements are such an area.

“While it might seem simple enough to draft up an agreement that Joe X is not to compete in the industry in which he is employed for 3 years after being let go or leaving his place of work, it’s not that simple when such an agreement is actually crafted and drafted,” said Deborah Barron, of the Barron Law Office in Sacramento, California.

It’s quite usual to find the a vast majority of businesses have some kind of trade secret they don’t want let out of the bag. Generally speaking the upper management keeps this kind of knowledge pretty hush-hush, after all business strategies, the elite client list, a new prototype in development, and what’s new for the future are things best kept in-house. Companies want to protect this kind of information, but some employees have to be given access to this information in order to do their jobs.

The way the happily ever after story goes is that the employee stays with the company until retirement and becomes a part of the management team. In reality, chances are the employee will either be fired or quit and make a beeline for the competition, who would love to get their hands on business secrets. To try and avoid this somewhat disastrous consequence when people leave a firm, the non- compete agreement comes into play.

“In plain English, the non-compete agreement spells out that the party in question (the employee) must not compete with the firm from which they are leaving for a certain period of time. This would deal with someone who wanted to leave a company and take the business secrets they know to another company,” Barron added.

While this might sound like a slam dunk and a simple solution, non-compete agreements have a drawback because of their restrictive nature. Businesses have every right to protect their secrets, but workers have a right to work. What happens now?

“That tends to depend on the state,” commented Barron. “In other words, some state courts will enforce non-compete agreements and in others, the courts lean toward an employee’s right to work. Knowing what the law says in the state where the business is headquartered and the worker works is the key to understanding whether or not a non-compete agreement may be enforceable or not,” concluded Deborah Barron, of the Barron Law Office in Sacramento, California.

Deborah Barron is a Sacramento business lawyer, Sacramento employment lawyer, and Sacramento winery lawyer in California. To learn more, visit Lawbarron.com.