Los Angeles Memory Care Home Neglect

Nobody likes to think about a family member needing long-term care in Los Angeles County, yet a surprising number of older adults do require long-term care for some amount of time during old age. Skilled nursing facilities and Assisted living facilities in the area, including memory care facilities, provide long-term care when seniors require it. While memory care facilities can be particularly important for providing long-term care to older adults with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, they can also be places that pose various types of injury risks due to negligence and neglect. An experienced Los Angeles memory care home neglect lawyer can provide you with more information.

What is a memory care facility in Los Angeles? According to AARP, “memory care is designed to provide a safe, structured environment with set routines to lower stress for people with Alzheimer’s or dementia.” At memory care facilities, “employees provide meals and help residents with personal care tasks, just like the staff at an assisted living facility, but they are also specially trained to deal with the unique issues that often arise as a result of dementia or Alzheimer’s.”

In other words, memory care facilities are a particular kind of assisted living facility designed for older adults who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia. These facilities do not provide medical care like nursing homes but rather are tasked with assisting residents with activities of daily living (ADLs) and other types of related care.

Residents of memory care facilities can suffer harm in a variety of ways, frequently because the loss of memory creates poor safety awareness. Similar to other types of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, residents of memory care homes can be injured as a result of physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, willful deprivation, and passive neglect. Given that older adults with dementia can be more vulnerable to abuse and neglect, it is particularly important to be on the lookout for signs of neglect if you have a loved one in a memory care facility. The following are common signs of neglect in seniors with dementia at memory care facilities in California:

• Falls, usually because there are dangerous conditions present for someone who has memory impairment.
• Wandering or elopement outside the building;
• Unexplained physical injuries such as bruises, dislocations, broken bones, burns, or restraint marks;
• Signs of extreme agitation and a sudden change in behavior that is not explained by Alzheimer’s disease or dementia;
• Fear of a particular staff member at the memory care facility;
• Unsanitary living conditions;
• Malnutrition or dehydration; and/or
• Bed sores and other unattended medical needs.

As the Alzheimer’s Association emphasizes, abuse and neglect can occur in any type of care setting, but “people with dementia are especially vulnerable because the disease may prevent them from reporting the abuse or recognizing it” due to cognitive impairment.

If you have an elderly loved one in a memory care home and have concerns about their safety, you should seek advice from one of our Los Angeles memory care home neglect attorneys as soon as possible. Contact the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group to learn more about how our firm can help.