Former nursing home worker Walter Small was arrested and charged with homicide in connection with Young’s death, and released Friday on a $5,000 bond. No court date has yet been set.

Young’s family has since filed lawsuits against Standifer Place in Chattanooga and the Tennessee Department of Human Services for “hiding the death and burial” of Young. The family is seeking $35 million against the nursing home for its involvement in Young’s wrongful death, and $900,000 against the Department of Human Services to compensate for negligence the family says the department showed following Young’s death.

County Medical Examiner Frank King says he did not perform an autopsy at the time of Young’s death because he was told the victim had fallen and fractured his skull as the result of a seizure.

The attorneys representing Young’s family also contend that Adult Protective Services, which had legal guardianship of Young, did not try to locate Young’s family when he was dying. Instead, the agency made arrangements to bury him in a pauper’s grave.

A spokesman for the state Department of Human Services has said that the department attempted to contact Young’s known relatives prior to his death, but to no avail.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Aide arrested for wrong death of nursing home patient

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Lloyd was indicted earlier this week on eight charges, seven of which are felonies, by a New Castle County grand jury for financially exploiting and physically neglecting the man, who had suffered from strokes, partial paralysis and seizure disorder. He has since died from unrelated causes.

According to the report, police were asked to go to the home in September of 2007, after someone had reported a man was unattended in Lloyd’s home. The man was found unattended on the second floor of the home. The home had no electricity, was unkempt and was littered with dog feces. Adult Protective Services was called but did not remove the man from Lloyd’s care.

Seven months later the man was admitted to Christiana Hospital with four bedsores. He was later released back into Lloyd’s care, but at a different address. Six weeks later, a caseworker from Protective Services went to check on the man and found him alone in the dining room. He was lying on a hospital bed with no sheets and surrounded by debris and food on the floor around him. He was admitted back to the hospital and treated for bedsores. This time, Protective Services removed the man from Lloyd’s care.

An investigation also determined that Lloyd was still taking the man’s Social Security checks even after the man was taken from her care.

Police are now looking for Lloyd. Anyone with information of her whereabouts should contact Newark Police Detective Andrew Rubin at Andrew.Rubin@cj.state.de.us or call Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP 3333.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Police look for woman accused of neglect, exploiting elderly man

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For one resident and her family, it was downright stressful.

Last June, a resident in the facility to receive physical therapy after having surgery on both knees, needed to get to her regular orthopedic doctor appointment. She was not ambulatory, needing a mechanical lift to be moved from the bed to the bathroom, and wheelchair to get around. She had to get to her doctor’s appointment in her hometown 32 miles away. The nursing home said its van was unavailable to transport her, leaving the resident and her family in a bind.

When administrator Pamm Dickey got word of the situation, she demanded the family pick up the resident by 5 p.m. that Thursday. The family scrambled, calling around and finally locating another nursing home. But that facility couldn’t accept her until Friday. Dickey was unwilling to budge. Using lewd language, Dickey demanded the family remove the resident from Pleasant Manor by the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline. Never mind that the other nursing home wasn’t ready for the resident. The woman’s family could just move her into their home in the interim, she was reported as saying.

However, moving the resident to the family’s home simply wasn’t an option. They were not equipped to lift and move her when she needed to use the bathroom, much less provide the skilled nursing care she needed. Even if it were for one night, the family just wasn’t able to do it.

Still, Dickey wouldn’t bend, becoming combative with the other nursing facility’s administrator over the phone. That administrator, who said she was “shocked” by Dickey’s unethical conduct, told Dickey she had no choice but to call Adult Protective Services. Dickey’s response, according to the administrator who reported her: “She proceeded to tell me to tell APS to bring a car to pick [the resident] up then because I will set her a– on the g—— curb!”

A 151-page report on the investigation into Pleasant Manor cited several incidents of emotional and verbal abuse by Dickey, including the incident mentioned above as well as berating residents for pushing their call buttons too often at night and arguing with one resident over a remote control. Dickey resigned Aug. 13, but dismissed the claims, saying “What is written (in the report) is not the truth by any means.”

Meanwhile, Pleasant Manor was found by surveyors as subjecting residents to immediate jeopardy and was fined, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has denied payment for all new residents admitted there who require coverage by Medicare or Medicaid effective Oct. 14 until the home achieves compliance with federal and state regulators.

Dickey’s case will be heard before the Oklahoma State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators, who will then determine the status of her license.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home administrator cited for verbal, emotional abuse

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I-1029 requires all new caregivers beginning in 2010 to be certified by the state, undergo an FBI background check and get at least 75 hours of training. The initiative is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

PAS-Port for Change, an eight-member statewide steering committee, argues that the initiative fails to address the core issues of abuse and neglect against the elderly and disabled. While it supports the training of caregivers, the organization believes the type of training and the method of delivering that training should be in the hands of the clients.

Debb Snyder, a member of the PAS-Port for Change steering committee who also is disabled, has tried but failed to get SEIU to circulate a questionnaire to those who use caregivers on the quality of care they receive. The questionnaire asks whether the recipient has been verbally or physically abused by a caregiver, whether a caregiver has failed to show up for work or arrived under the influence of drugs or alcohol, whether a caregiver has asked them for food or money or threatened them with abandonment, according to the story.

Snyder says she would like to use those questionnaires during interviews with the accused caregivers as a means of training.

The Washington Attorney General’s office forwards complaints of abuse and neglect to Adult Protective Services, which in turn investigates each case to determine if criminal charges are warranted. The state receives about 13,000 complaints of abuse and neglect each year from adults living in their own homes.

“We’re not against the workers,” Snyder says, “but they need to be trained by us.”

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Advocacy group wants more control over caregiver training

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Disability Rights Washington (DRW), a nonprofit organization that protects the rights of people with disabilities, reported numerous examples where the three state agencies charged with investigating reports of abuse and neglect failed to protect frail adults. For example, clearing a nursing home of abuse allegations against a 93-year-old resident with suspicious injuries without reviewing photographs or talking to witnesses.

The three agencies cited in the report include Adult Protective Services, Residential Care Services and Health Professions Quality Assurance. The Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) oversees both Adult Protective Services and Residential Care Services. The state Health Department oversees Health Professions Quality Assurance.

The Seattle P-I report cites 2006 data that claims only 10 percent of the more than 13,000 complaints made to Adult Protective Services were substantiated; less than 6 percent of the nearly 23,000 complaints made to Residential Care Services were substantiated; and Health Professions Quality Assurance took disciplinary action in less than 10 percent of the more than 6,500 complaints it received and pursued no criminal charges against a single facility.

All three agencies claim they have insufficient staff with inadequate training to meet the demands of their offices. A spokesperson with Residential Care Services, which investigates allegations against nursing homes and other residential services, says it has begun investigating specific reports of abuse in all facilities. And while the agency recently hired seven additional staff members, they are still too understaffed to oversee the state’s 3,000-plus licensed facilities.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Washington agencies accused of not investigating abuse claims

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According to a report by local television station WAVE3 in November 2007, family members say Rev. Graham, who had required full-time nursing care since 1999 after a fall left him a quadriplegic with a serious brain injury, began a quick decline in health after entering the Harborside facility in January 2007. Prior to that time, he was cared for at a different facility, where he experienced no problems during his six-year stay, according to his sister, Sherry Cooke.

According to the WAVE3 report, incidents of neglect included severe bed sores, a feeding tube being turned or left off repeatedly resulting in dramatic weight loss, and medications missed or administered incorrectly.

The family says Adult Protective Services investigated and substantiated their claim of caretaker neglect. However, the nursing home released a statement to the TV station saying they had complied with the state department of health and the office of Inspector General in their investigations in the family’s concerns, and that the agencies found the care center acted appropriately in the care of the individual.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › A family’s worst fear

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