Legal Question in Elder Law in California
2 weeks ago we placed my father in an assisted living facility that claimed they specialized in memory care. He has mild to mid dinevtia. We were transparent about his condition. He is a fall risk. He repeats himself. Walks with a walker with assistance needs help showering grooming dressing help griping I. And out if a chair and bed can feed himself and scores high on a lmoca test They required an evaluation from their rn. She came to the house evalsiated him and determined he needed the highest cognitive program but needed the highest level of care due to his impairments. An additional 1900 a month for this on top of 8250 for rent and a 7000 community fee. They assured us he would have 2 people helping him with these tasks and that he will get the highest level of care. My mom agreed jumped through e wry hoop to get hi. In. A doctors report was required a tb test. D so on. The doctor wrote he is ambulatory with a walker and assistance. First day my dad fell second day my dad fell and hit his head in the wall. Paramedics were called no ice was applied to his head for swelling they called us hours after the fact to tell us. When we questioned how this happened they said that he got out of his wheelchair by himself and immediately fell. Our question was is why was he in a wheelchair in the first place? He was supposed to be ambulatory second my father cannot get up from the chair by himself he needs assistance by two people as we stated earlier so that would not be a possibility. They tried to tell us that he acts differently here than at home but the strength level just isn’t there with my father. We’ve been caring for him for two years so we know his patterns. He decided on day two that he would be in a wheelchair at all times even though the doctor stated that he needs to be up and walking with assistance and a walker because he’s in a wheelchair and check it out by himself he’s had a couple of incontinence accidents they then decided that they would put him in adult diapers even though he doesn’t have an incontinence problem on a regular basis. They then told us in a meeting that their staff are not trained as physical therapists or LVN‘s and they cannot provide the type of physical support he needs when he walks therefore he will need to be in a wheelchair . My father is completely restrained in the wheelchair because he can’t get out by himself and when he asks to get out they tell him no. The last draw was the other day they called a meeting with us with the director the RN and the memory care executive and on the phone they surprised us and had somebody from their corporate office listening. Period they went on to tell us that he does need to be in the depends and he does need to be in a wheelchair for his own safety and dignity and when my mom questioned that and said that’s not what she wanted they shut her up. They also told her laundry list of things that he’s going to need that she hast to buy and they took it upon themselves to order him a high-back wheelchair one that somebody who can’t walk at all would use where they can put their legs up and some other various supplies . They also told her that he has short-term memory loss he can’t remember things for even five minutes and he repeats himself a lot. Anybody that is trained in memory care and dementia understands that those are very typical with these type of people. So it reiterated in our mind that these people are not trained physically nor are they trained on the principles of dealing with memory care as they presented it to us upon lure luring us in as customers. My mom never agreed to buy the items above and she was never told about them and she’s certainly not going to pay for them. They don’t take my father for walks they don’t even take him outside on their patio to get some fresh air we have been doing that. We get him up and walk him with his walker and have not had any problems with him falling . The very last straw was after the meeting my mom and I were chatting because we were both present and we both came to the conclusion that they were secretly recording our conversation because they had one cell phone on the counter where the person from the corporate office was on the phone and he identified himself and then she placed her phone on top of it able to record it easily without missing any of the conversation . We were never notified or asked our consent for them to record our conversation. We are visiting another facility today at the two week mark to hopefully place him somewhere better that will be more suited to his need somebody that understands memory care and can assist. But we have a lot of money invested in this place and now they violated our rights. We’re looking for an attorney to take this out on a contingency basis and help us. My mom‘s lawsuit is more based on the amount she spent and the lack of privacy the violation of privacy with the phone call being recorded and mine is the phone copy recorded because I did not invest in this.
1 Answer from Attorneys
LawGuru is a question and answer service. It does sound like you need a lawyer and may well have a good case. I suggest you contact the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. lawyer referral service.
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