Elder Abuse

Ontario Elder Abuse Attorneys

Protecting the Rights of Your Elderly Loved Ones in the Inland Empire

The law defines elder abuse as the neglect, exploitation, or painful/harmful mistreatment of anyone who is 65 or older. Our team at McCune Law Group has decades of experience and a legacy of results that can greatly benefit our clients in cases involving:

• Emotional abuse — Emotional abuse can occur through the use of harassment, hurtful insults, intimidation, embarrassment, humiliation or threats of physical harm. When a nursing home is understaffed, the nurses and staff must work harder and are more likely to become stressed. This is when emotional abuse is at its highest.
• Financial abuse — When a trusted caregiver takes advantage of a patient to achieve financial gain, it is defined as financial abuse under the law. This type of elderly abuse can take on many forms such as scamming, forging patient signatures and more.
• Physical abuse — The common forms of physical abuse include hitting, kicking, punching, force-feeding and other forms of abuse such as restraining the patient without reason. If you suspect that your loved one has suffered physical abuse at the hands of a trusted caregiver, do not delay in contacting a nursing home abuse lawyer.
• Sexual abuse — Even though these cases are not typically reported, sexual abuse in nursing homes does occur. This type of sexual crime can be committed by nursing home staff, caregivers or other residents in the same care facility.

Recognizing Signs of Abuse or Neglect

You expect that an elderly family member will be treated with extraordinary care when you pay for him or her to live in a nursing home. Nursing homes have an ethical standard that they promise to uphold, and both state and federal laws protect those in their care.

Nevertheless, a devastating number of the elderly in the U.S. experience various forms of abuse in nursing homes and other care facilities every year. This abuse transcends all ethnic backgrounds, genders, and levels of social status.

Some of the most common signs of abuse include:

• Being isolated from the other residents
• Being over-medicated or sedated
• Dehydration
• Depression or withdrawal from normal activities
• Flinching or fear when around staff members
• Immobility as a result of being left in bed
• Marks, bruises, burns, broken bones or bedsores
• Poor hygiene and dirty clothes
• Weight loss or malnutrition
• Workers preventing family from visiting with the resident alone