Orange County Memory Care Home Neglect

Older adults in Orange County have a high probability of requiring long-term care at some point during their senior years. In fact, the Administration on Aging (AOA) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) report that anyone who is currently 65 years old “has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services and support in their remaining years,” with women often requiring more time in long-term care than men. While the average length of needing long-term care is between two years and four years, approximately 20% of adults who are currently age 65 will need long-term care for five years or more. Of those seniors, many suffer from dementia and require care in various types of assisted living facilities in California. One type of long-term care facility that serves seniors with dementia is a memory care facility.

Memory care facilities in Orange County can provide quality care, but they can also be responsible for a senior’s injuries at the facility caused by neglect. An experienced Orange County memory care home neglect lawyer can help.

What is an Orange County memory care home, and who lives in a memory care home? A memory care home is a kind of assisted living facility that is designed to provide care to older adults who have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. According to Forbes, you can gain a better understanding of memory care by thinking of it as a “unique subset of assisted living and nursing home care” where “facilities have smaller staff-to-patient ratios and are designed to meet the specific social, medical, and safety needs of people who have dementia or some form of cognitive impairment.”

Memory care homes, like other types of assisted living facilities, provide residents with help with activities of daily living (ADL) such as bathing, dressing, grooming, and eating. At these facilities, staff members are typically trained specifically to aid residents who have Alzheimer’s or other types of cognitive impairment. Staff members do not provide medical care. If a resident’s condition has progressed enough that they require ongoing and extensive medical care, care in a nursing home may be necessary.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, it is important to be aware that any of the following types of abuse can affect patients with dementia and cognitive impairment:

• Wandering (causing falls or other injuries)
• Physical abuse;
• Emotional abuse;
• Passive neglect;
• Willful deprivation;
• Confinement;
• Sexual abuse; and
• Self-neglect.

Anyone who has an elderly loved one in a memory care home should be aware of the risks of abuse and neglect. If you have any concerns about a loved one’s safety or if you are worried that an elderly loved one has been harmed as a result of abuse or neglect at a facility, you should get in touch with a lawyer who can help you. One of our experienced Orange County memory care home neglect lawyers can speak with you today about your case and the possibility of filing a claim against a particular memory care home in Southern California. Contact the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group today for more information about the services we provide.