Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The man accused of sexually abusing a woman with mental disabilities has been ruled competent to stand trial, according to the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal. Preston Shaw, 65, and the victim were both residents of Hillcrest Centre for Health and Rehabilitation in Jeffersonville. Shaw, who suffers from schizophrenia and major depression, had previously expressed to nursing home workers his desire to be close to the victim. The victim has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or talk.

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Eldercare advocate Wes Bledsoe stood among nearly 100 residents from Hot Springs, South Dakota last week, and rallied them to take action and change federal and state guidelines that impede speedy reporting of incidents that harm vulnerable elderly in the state’s nursing homes.

The meeting was his second since early last month, when he held a town hall meeting with an audience of more than 200 focusing on recent allegations of sexual abuse of residents at Castle Manor by a nursing home aide at the home. According to family members, it took days for the nursing home to file the sexual abuse claims with the Department of Health, and the accused abuser continued to work at the home for weeks after the initial complaint was made.

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A lawsuit filed on behalf of a class of thousands of residents at 27 Colorado nursing homes operated by SavaSeniorCare claims that state officials allowed the nursing homes to operate without insurance in violation of state law, leaving residents without means to sue when they are abused and neglected, according to the Denver Post.

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The 87-year-old nursing home resident likely meant no harm. He suffers from dementia and wouldn’t give a belt used to assist residents with walking back to certified nursing assistant Sharoia D. Hill. But Hill became frustrated with his aggressive behavior. She decided to remedy the situation by hitting the frail man with a closed fist. Now the 28-year-old nursing aide faces up to five years in prison on a Class 3 felony charge, according to The News-Gazette.

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A former manager at a Cambridgeshire, England nursing home says he is the victim of sabotage by disgruntled staff members who didn’t agree with his measures to improve the facility’s poor standards. But the claims made against him are mounting, according to the Cambridge News.

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Wandering is a common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other cognitive disorders. According to the Alzheimer’s Association more than 60 percent of those with the condition wander at some point and up to 70 percent of those who wander will do so again. More than 127,000 critical wandering incidents are reported each year. If not found within the first 24 hours, up to half of all persons with dementia who wander will become seriously injured or die, according to research obtained by the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Early Sunday morning an 86-year-old resident of Kruse Village retirement home in Brenham, Texas, pushed the wheelchair he was riding in out of the sight of nursing home staff and through a security door to a short flight of steps. That’s when police believe he accidentally rolled down the stairs and sustained serious injuries that killed him. While police strongly believe the death was an accident, because he died of unnatural causes they are investigating how and why the accident occurred.

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Richard Constable, 66, walked away from his Staten Island assisted living facility and remained gone for two days before staff bothered to call the police, according to the Staten Island Advance. Staff felt the police would respond better the longer the man was missing.

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Sisters Duanne Bewely, 36, and Fiona Nicolas, 38, worked as a team, running Faith Manor Vermont and Faith Manor Melrose assisted living facilities in south Florida. They marketed themselves as a fully licensed facility and won over the trust of physicians and clinic owners, who would refer patients to their homes. Those health care professionals now say they would have never put patients in the care of the sisters had they known they were lying and cheating the government.

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The family of a woman who was sexually assaulted at an Indiana nursing home wants the home shut down for not taking measures to prevent the rape of their daughter by a fellow resident, according to WHAS-TV.

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