Woman arrested on suspicion of more than 100 instances of elder abuse

by  Jordyn Brown

Junction City police are seeking help identifying pieces of stolen jewelry.  Photos of the jewelry can be viewed online at tinyurl.com/junctioncityjewelry.  Junction City Police Department

A 25-year-old woman is potentially facing 99 felony charges and 11 misdemeanor charges after admitting to withholding vital medication and stealing from elderly people at care homes the past five to six years. 

Noelle Jendraszek was arrested Wednesday by Junction City police on suspicion of stealing money, jewelry and drugs from residents at a Junction City assisted-living facility, according to a news release from police.

Jendraszek later confessed to doing so in a notarized affidavit, as well as to similar crimes at previous care facilities where she worked, according to police.

Jendraszek was booked in Lane County Jail on suspicion of the following charges: 55 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, 44 counts of tampering with drug records, five counts of second-degree theft and six counts of third-degree theft.

The release said police began investigating on Sept. 10, when the son of a resident at Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living reported someone had stolen cash from his father. Investigators eventually interviewed Jendraszek, who within hours of the first interview gave up about 275 pieces of jewelry she had admitted to stealing from residents in care facilities where she was employed in the past five or six years, police said.

"Jendraszek has also admitted withholding vital and medically necessary medication from 44 vulnerable and elderly residents whom were (in) her care," the release stated.

Over the years, Jendraszek has worked at the Junction City facility, River Grove Memory Care in Eugene and six care facilities in Salem: Cedar Village Assisted Living Community, Capital Manor Retirement Community, Four Seasons Residential Care, Gibson Creek by Bonaventure, Prestige Senior Living Orchard Heights, and Redwood Heights Retirement and Assisted Living Community.

In her statement of guilt, Jendraszek said the following, according to police: “I am very apologetic for any harm I have done and/or any sadness I have caused. It is my intent to correct my wrongs and do the right thing by taking responsibility for my actions. I hope someday that all the families and persons I have harmed can find it within themselves to forgive me because I know what I have done is wrong and I am seeking the help I need to recover and become a better person.”

Junction City police are seeking help identifying the pieces of stolen jewelry. They are asking people with a friend or relative who lived at any of these care facilities in the past five years who believe their jewelry may have been stolen to examine the photos posted on this website: tinyurl.com/junctioncityjewelry.

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Woman arrested on suspicion of more than 100 instances of elder abuse

Caregiver at Junction City nursing home arrested for mistreatment, theft

This is the latest controversy facing the Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living.

 

Posted By: Chelsea Hunt

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. – A caregiver at an embattled retirement home in Junction City has been arrested for elder abuse.

Noelle Jendraszek, 25, was taken to the Lane County Jail for 55 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, 44 counts of tampering with drug records, five counts of second-degree theft, and six counts of third-degree theft.

Police said the woman stole money, jewelry and drugs from residents at Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living, 500 E. 6th St.

This is the same nursing home that was evacuated last week after a power outage, drawing the attention of state regulators. Department of Human Services records show reports of abuse at the Junction City facility going back a decade.

Jendraszek has reportedly been cooperating with the investigation and has talked with investigators about her “wrongdoings,” police said. She has reportedly admitted to withholding vital and medically necessary medications from 44 vulnerable residents in her care.

The investigation began Sept. 10 when a resident’s son reported cash had been stolen from his elderly father. The man had moved into the Junction City facility in August 2018. Investigators talked to Jendraszek, who had been a med-tech there since October 2018. Within hours, the woman reportedly surrendered about 275 pieces of jewelry she said she'd stolen from residents at multiple facilities.

Jendraszek has been employed at the following facilities in the past five years, including:

• Cedar Village Assisted Living Community – Salem
• Capital Manor Retirement Community – Salem
• Four Seasons Residential Care – Salem
• Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living – Junction City
• Gibson Creek by Bonaventure – Salem
• Prestige Senior Living Orchard Heights – Salem
• Redwood Heights Retirement and Assisted Living Community – Salem
• River Grove Memory Care – Eugene

If you know someone who was a resident at any of those facilities in that time frame and believe jewelry may have been stolen, you are urged to review images of the recovered items by clicking here.

This is just some of the jewelry that police recovered in the case.

Police said Jendraszek indicated she's "at peace" with her decision to admit to the crimes. 

In a notarized affidavit, Jendraszek said: “I am very apologetic for any harm I have done and/or any sadness I have caused. It is my intent to correct my wrongs and do the right thing by taking responsibility for my actions. I hope someday that all the families and persons I have harmed can find it within themselves to forgive me because I know what I have done is wrong and I am seeking the help I need to recover and become a better person.”

Anyone with information regarding incidents of abuse or other crimes at Junction City Retirement and Assisted Living should contact police at 541-998-1245.

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Caregiver at Junction City nursing home arrested for mistreatment, theft

Diagnosed with dementia, she documented her wishes for the end. Then her retirement home said no.

Susan Saran, a longtime Buddhist, often drives to a nearby monastery to practice her faith. Saran is fighting her retirement community over her right to determine how she will die — even though she has made her wishes known in writing. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)

By JoNel Aleccia

 

When she worked on the trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, long before cellphone calculators, Susan Saran could perform complex math problems in her head. Years later, as one of its top regulators, she was in charge of investigating insider trading deals.

Today, she struggles to remember multiplication tables.

Seven years ago, at age 57, Saran was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a progressive, fatal brain disease. She had started forgetting things, losing focus at the job she had held for three decades. Then tests revealed the grim diagnosis.

“It was absolutely devastating,” Saran, 64, said. “It changed everything. My job ended. I was put out on disability. I was told to establish myself in an [extended] community before I was unable to care for myself.”

So Saran uprooted herself. She sold her home in 2015 and found a bucolic retirement community in rural New York whose website promised “comprehensive health care for life.”

And now, she is fighting with that community over her right to determine how she will die — even though she has made her wishes known in writing. Similar fights could ensnare millions of Americans with dementia and similar end-of-life directives in coming years.

In 2018, after two brain hemorrhages, Saran conferred with a lawyer and signed an advance directive for dementia, a controversial new document that instructs caregivers to withhold ­hand-feeding and fluids at the end of life to avoid the worst ravages of the disease.

“It’s not something that I am willing to endure,” she said. “I don’t want my life prolonged beyond the point where I’m participating in life.”

But when Saran submitted the document to her New York continuing care retirement community, Kendal at Ithaca, where she has spent more than $500,000 to live, officials there said they could not honor her wishes.

In a letter, lawyers told Saran that the center is required by state and federal law to offer regular daily meals, with feeding assistance if necessary. No provision exists, the letter said, for “decisions to refuse food and water.”

When asked about Saran, Kendal’s executive director, Laurie Mante, wrote in an email: “We recognize the great complexity in balancing our residents’ wishes with what is required of us. We have a dedicated team who works to balance those interests, and, when appropriate, work with our residents and their families to seek alternative paths.”

It’s a cruel quandary for Saran and other Americans who have turned to dementia directives that have been created in recent years. Even when people document their choices in these directives — while they still have the ability to do so — no guarantee exists that those instructions will be honored, said Stanley Terman, a California psychiatrist who advises patients on end-of-life decisions.

“It is, in my opinion, a false sense of security,” Terman said.

That may be especially true for the 2.2 million people who live in long-term care settings in the United States. People with dementia are most likely to die in nursing facilities, according to new research from Duke University and Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.

“If you’ve got the resources, where you’ve got family and paid caregivers at home, you’re all set,” said Karl Steinberg, a California geriatrician and hospice physician who has written extensively about dementia directives. If you’re living in a facility, he said, “it’s not going to happen.”

One key question is whether patients with dementia — or those who fear the disease — can say in advance that they want oral food and fluids stopped at a certain point, a move that would hasten death through dehydration.

It is a controversial form of VSED — voluntarily stopping eating and drinking — a practice among some terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. In those cases, people who still have mental capacity can refuse food and water, resulting in death within about two weeks.

Many states prohibit the withdrawal of assisted feeding, calling it basic “comfort care” that must be offered. Only one state, Nevada, explicitly recognizes an advance directive that calls for stopping eating and drinking. And that’s via a little-known law that took effect in October.

Critics of such documents, however, say they could lead to forced starvation of incapacitated people. The directives may be biased, reflecting a society prejudiced against age, disability and cognitive change, said James Wright, medical director of three long-term care facilities in Richmond and lead author of a recent white paper advising facilities not to honor dementia directives.

Based on his years of clinical experience, Wright said many people with dementia become content with their situation, even when they never thought they would be.

“To enforce an advance directive on someone who may have had a complete turnaround on what they think of a life worth living is unethical and immoral,” Wright said.

The dementia directives offered in the past few years are aimed at filling what experts say has been a major gap in advance-care planning: the gradual loss of capacity to make decisions about one’s care.

One version, published in 2018 by Barak Gaster, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, was downloaded 130,000 times after being mentioned in a New York Times story and continues to be retrieved about 500 times per week.

“This is an issue that people have really thought a lot about,” Gaster said. “They worry about it a lot. They’re so eager and excited to have a structured opportunity to make their wishes known.”

Traditional advance directives focus on rare conditions, such as a persistent vegetative state or permanent coma, Gaster said. “And yet the No. 1 reason a person would lose ability is dementia,” he said.

In addition to Gaster’s document, directives drafted in New York and Washington state have drawn hundreds of users. The aid-in-dying advocacy group Compassion & Choices released a dementia directive in December.

As the U.S. population ages, more people — and their families — are grappling with dementia. By 2050, nearly 14 million Americans 65 and older may be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

“We are right now experiencing the very first upswing of the giant wave of dementia that’s heading our way,” Gaster said.

Saran is on the crest of that wave.

Divorced, with no close family, she turned to Kendal — with its 236 independent units and 84-bed health center — as her final home. During her four years there, she has noticed some decline in her mental clarity.

“Even some of the simplest mathematical problems, like even seven times seven, I can’t think of it now,” Saran said.

Still, she is able to manage her affairs. She cooks her own food and cares for her three cats — Squeaky, Sweetie and Pirate, a one-eyed tabby. A longtime Buddhist, she often drives to a nearby monastery to practice her faith.

In late summer, Saran invited visitors to her small cottage at Kendal, where tapestries hang on the walls and bookshelves are filled with tomes on religion, death and dying.

Frontotemporal dementia affects about 60,000 people in the United States, and patients often die within seven to 13 years. But Saran’s disease appears to be progressing more slowly than expected.

“I think I have great capacity,” said Saran, who wears her silver hair long and favors jeans, linen shirts and turquoise jewelry.

She chain-smokes, lighting up the Seneca cigarettes she buys for $3 a pack from a nearby Indian reservation. She thought about quitting but decided it was not worth the effort and continues to indulge her habit. “If you had my diagnosis, wouldn’t you?” she said.

When Saran was hospitalized after her strokes, she suddenly understood what losing her abilities might mean.

“I realized, oh, my God, I might get stuck in a situation where I can’t take any independent action,” she recalled. “I better make sure I have all my paperwork in order.”

She was stunned to learn it might not matter, even after her local lawyer, Chuck Guttman, drafted health-care proxy documents and a power of attorney. “I thought this was it,” she said. “I thought I’d move here and everything was taken care of, everything was settled. And now it’s not.”

Mante, Kendal’s executive director, declined to comment on Saran’s specific situation, even after Saran authorized her to do so. “As with all of our residents,” she wrote, “we are working diligently to provide for an enriching, quality living environment that honors her independence and wishes.”

Saran said no one from Kendal has yet reached out to discuss an “alternative path.”

Not all dementia directives include instructions about assisted feeding. Gaster said he and his colleagues had “heated conversations” before deciding to leave that issue off their popular document.

Instead, he said, his option helps more people by addressing general goals of care for each stage of the disease. The most important thing, he said, is for people to consider their choices and share their desires with their loved ones.

The debate, Gaster said, boils down to whether “assisted feeding is basic support” or “a medical intervention that can be declined in advance.”

“There’s still a very wide perspective of viewpoints on that,” he said.

Backed by statute and practice, facilities say they are bound to offer food to all residents willing to eat, and to assist with hand-feeding and fluids if a person needs help. The controversy centers on the definition of those terms.

Wright says late-stage dementia patients who show any interest in food — a flick of the eyes, grunting or gestures, opening the mouth — should be fed until they refuse it. Steinberg and others contend the default should be “don’t feed unless they ask for it.”

It is always going to be “somewhat of a guess,” Wright said, about whether hand-feeding someone is help — or force. “I’ve not seen any guidelines that can faithfully give good unbiased guidance,” he said. “I feel that I personally can determine when food means something to my patients and when it doesn’t.”

The growing efforts to use advance directives were inspired, in part, by high-profile cases of dementia patients who were spoon-fed against their apparent wishes. In Oregon and in British Columbia, courts ruled that food and water were basic care that could not be withdrawn.

But so far, there has been no court case that says a clear advance directive for VSED “may or must be honored,” said Thaddeus Mason Pope, a professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law who studies end-of-life decisions.

Pope said he has heard of many people who move out — or their families move them out — of long-term care facilities to avoid assisted feeding in the last stages of dementia.

Saran has considered that, too.

“I should probably just leave,” she said, although that would mean losing the nonrefundable investment she already has made. She thinks about moving out every day, but then what? Hospice might be a solution, but only if there is room when she needs it, she said.

Saran said her situation should be viewed as a cautionary tale. She wishes she had asked more questions before moving into her community and insisted on answers about how she would die once her dementia progressed.

“I didn’t realize I was signing away my right to self-determination,” she said. “I am appalled that my future demented self takes precedence over my competent current self.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Diagnosed with dementia, she documented her wishes for the end. Then her retirement home said no.

Former 'Living The Dream' Facility Raided

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A Putnam County facility that once operated under the name "Living the Dream" was raided Thursday as part of an investigation into possible elder abuse and financial exploitation of the elderly, according to the district attorney.

Financial disclosures show the retirement and assisted-living facility, now known as Senior Lifestyles LLC, is partly owned by Republican legislative candidate Ed Butler. He's also the registered agent for the corporation.

District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway said the facility was the target of one of three search warrants. Investigators also searched the facility's administrative offices at 723 West Jackson Street in Cookeville and a car belonging to the operator, Stephanie Butler.

"The allegations were that the operator of that facility was engaging in financial exploitation and possible elder abuse of some of the residents," Dunaway said.

The DA said that there were "in excess of 40" residents inside the facility, which is regulated by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health.

"That doesn't mean all of them are victims," Dunaway said. "We believe a good many are."

The investigation is being led by Dunaway's office. Also assisting in the searches were investigators from the TBI, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office, the Cookeville Police Department and the 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force.

Case workers from the Department of Mental Health assisted to ensure that residents received proper care, the DA said.

Dunaway added that the evidence would be reviewed and, if wrongdoing is found, the case would be presented to the Putnam County Grand Jury for possible criminal charges.

Efforts to reach Ed and Stephanie Butler were unsuccessful.

Someone at the facility told NewsChannel 5 Investigates, "Please don't call back."

That facility was the subject of a NewsChannel 5 investigation when it was known as "Living the Dream."

Our investigation revealed how the former executive director of the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD) poured more than a million dollars of agency money into the facility for the elderly that also became her home.

Wendy Askins later pleaded guilty to theft of federal funds and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

After the scandal broke, UCDD sold the facility.

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Former 'Living The Dream' Facility Raided

Retirement home shut down months after attack on 86-year-old

Click to Watch Video

(CNN)A newly uncovered video of a resident at an assisted living facility in Florida mercilessly beating another resident raises new questions about the safety of the elderly in places meant to protect and care for them.

In the video, obtained last week, a 52-year-old resident is seen punching an 86-year-old resident with dementia more than 50 times as the older man lay curled up on the floor.

The younger resident accused the older resident of eating his cupcake, according to law enforcement.

The video was taken by the facility's closed circuit surveillance system in October and later turned over to the police, who shared it with CNN.

The facility -- the Good Samaritan Retirement Home in Williston -- had a history of violations, and more sanctions in the past five years than any other assisted living facility in Florida. In December, two administrators were arrested in connection with separate incidents on charges of neglect of the elderly.

The beating, which was first reported by the Gainesville Sun, lasted on and off for nearly 2 minutes. It occurred in a common area of a secured unit within the facility while other residents ate and watched television mere feet away.

At the time the beating took place, there was no staff member attending to residents in the unit, and no one had been assigned to monitor the unit's video surveillance, according to official reports.

By the time staff arrived, the beating was over. The elderly resident was hospitalized with bruising and swelling to his face, as well as hip pain, according to the police report.

A month after the beating, another resident hit her head at the facility and was not immediately taken to the hospital. She later died.

One of the facility's administrators, Nenita Alfonso Sudeall, later broke down and cried as she told police she was "overwhelmed" at the facility, which she said was short-staffed and had poorly trained employees, according to a police report.

A number of other recent reports and incidents have called into question the safety of residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the country.

Sometimes, as in the case in Florida, the threats come from fellow residents. Other times, it's from staff.

According to a 2016 study of 10 New York nursing homes, in a given month, one out of five residents suffers mistreatment at the hands of another resident. In September, residents of a Florida nursing home died after Hurricane Irma knocked out the facility's air conditioning. According to the Hollywood Police Department, Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Craig Mallak classified 12 deaths as homicides from heat exposure, as staff at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills failed to evacuate residents amid sweltering temperatures in the days following the storm.

Also earlier this year, a CNN report found that the federal government has cited more than 1,000 nursing homes for mishandling or failing to prevent alleged cases of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse at their facilities between 2013 and 2016.

"There are far too many cases of abuse and neglect happening in nursing homes and assisted living facilities," said Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care, a national advocacy organization for residents and their families. "We've been seeing cases for decades. This one incident in Florida shows how bad the problem can be."

A spokeswoman for the association that represents many of Florida's long-term care providers said the October beating at Good Samaritan and the national report about nursing home rapes are "disturbing." The association does not represent Good Samaritan.

"We extend our heartfelt thoughts and sympathies to all residents and families involved," Kristen Knapp, the spokeswoman for the Florida Health Care Association, wrote in an email to CNN.

"Cases of abuse are appalling and deeply troubling, and actions that jeopardize the privacy, dignity and safety of the elderly should be condemned and prosecuted to the fullest degree possible," she added.

Fifty-six punches in two minutes

The beating occurred October 3 in a secure unit of Good Samaritan, a 45-bed assisted living facility.

The 86-year-old man was punched 56 times, according to law enforcement reports. Two other residents futilely attempted to help. Staff members arrived at the scene roughly 30 seconds after the beating ended.

The resident seen doing the beating had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to police.

Clay Connolly, Williston's deputy police chief, said the man, whose name was not released, has been arrested several times in the past for assault and battery. Connolly said the man was never prosecuted because he was declared mentally incapacitated. According to a police report, he wasn't arrested for the October beating because of his "limited capacity."

Staff at Good Samaritan told police the man had shown no signs of aggression since coming to the facility in 2015, according to police reports. After beating the other resident, he was removed from the facility temporarily for evaluation, but was later allowed to return to Good Samaritan.

After his return, he was supervised one-on-one by facility staff, according to a report by the state's Agency for Health Care Administration. The report goes on to say that "there was no evidence that the staff had been trained on the scope of such responsibilities."

According to the Florida Health Care Association, which represents some of the state's long-term care providers, nursing homes and assisted living facilities have mandatory staff training programs that address prevention and recognition of abuse, including abuse committed by residents.

CNN attempted to contact the owners and administrators of Good Samaritan by phone and email, and attempted to reach the owners on Facebook, as well. Court records do not yet indicate the names of the administrators' lawyers.

A long history of violations

Over the past five years, the state Agency for Health Care Administration has sanctioned Good Samaritan 17 times -- more than any other assisted living facility in Florida. The agency has also hit Good Samaritan with $73,750 in fines over the same time period -- again, more than any other facility in Florida.

CNN obtained these numbers from the agency's website last week, before the facility was listed as closed.

Over the last five years, there were changes in ownership at the facility. The most recent owners, Helen Romero and Jhoana Paz, appear on ownership documents dating back to August 2015, according to the agency. CNN was unable to determine if their roles at the facility go back further.

In the year before the beating, the state agency reported that the facility had problems with documentation for medications given to residents, failing "to provide a decent living environment," and failing "to provide appropriate supervision for a resident in need of medical services."

State Sen. Lauren Book became involved after receiving a phone call from Lee, the advocate who is also Florida's former long-term care ombudsman. She questioned why Good Samaritan wasn't closed down after the beating in early October, especially given the facility's long track record of infractions.

"Why are residents being left in these facilities that clearly aren't safe?" Book asked.

A resident death

The Florida Department of Children and Families was informed of the October beating the day it happened, police records show.

One month later, on November 1, a 72-year-old female resident fell and hit her head. Staff did not take her to the hospital or inform her daughter or health care provider about the fall.

According to the police report, Sudeall, the facility administrator who complained of being overwhelmed, told police that the elderly woman had fallen in the parking lot and did not wish to be transported to the hospital for treatment. Sudeall told the police she had followed established protocol since "the wound was not actively bleeding and she was conscious and responsive, she was permitted to make the decision as to medical treatment."

Sudeall told the police she placed the elderly woman in the "memory ward," a special unit within the facility, to better monitor her condition and keep her from wandering outside. The woman was reportedly monitored on an hourly basis by staff, according to the police report.

About six hours after she fell, the resident was found unresponsive in bed and 911 was called, according to the police report. Police found the woman, her face turned toward the pillow, occasionally gasping for air and with dried blood on her head and hands.

Sudeall, the facility administrator, told police she delivered first aid to the woman. When police asked what that entailed, Sudeall said she cleaned the blood off her face and hands, according to a law enforcement report. In an incident report, staff also recorded they had given her an ice compress and that she "refused to go to the hospital," according to an agency survey.

The woman was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

The fatal injury was first reported in the Gainesville Sun.

Connolly, the police deputy chief, said he and his colleagues became frustrated that the Agency for Health Care Administration wasn't doing enough to protect the residents.

"The whole thing was atrocious. We have people being killed and injured. We were anxious. We were beside ourselves," Connolly said. "There was a huge amount of frustration in my office because regulatory agencies weren't regulating."

On November 22, nearly three weeks after the woman's death, the Agency for Health Care Administration put a moratorium on new admissions to Good Samaritan.

Connolly says that wasn't enough.

"That just meant they could only kill the people they had left," he said. "We asked, 'What are you planning to do with the people who are there?' We never got a good answer."

According to a statement from a spokeswoman, the state agency took "swift action to hold this facility accountable. ... The health and safety of residents is our top priority, which is why (the agency) has and will hold any facility who fails to protect residents fully accountable."

Two weeks later, there was another incident -- one that resulted in the arrest of a facility administrator.

On Thursday, December 7, a resident underwent a medical procedure. A nurse instructed Rhaimley Yap Romero, an administrator who police said was the co-owner's son, to closely monitor the resident over the weekend and alert her immediately if there were any changes in the resident's condition, according to a press release by the Williston police.

Over the weekend, the patient's condition did deteriorate, and the facility staff contacted Romero twice, but Romero did not contact the nurse and gave no care instructions to the staff, according to police.

On December 11, police arrested Romero, 31, on charges of neglect of the elderly. Sudeall was taken into custody days later on the same charge involving the death of the resident who had hit her head.

Neither has entered a plea.

Still, the facility was not immediately shut down.

'Why did it take seven weeks to shut this facility?'

On December 19, the Agency for Health Care Administration filed a report about the facility. It noted many problems, including that some patients had been given the wrong dosages of medications, and other patients were given medications even though there was no documentation of a physician's order. In another case, the medication record reflected that a medication wasn't given to a resident until 11 days after it was prescribed.

The agency also reported that the facility's administrator "lacks requisite qualifications" and that the "current administrator and shareholder both candidly admit a lack of knowledge of Facility operations."

The report continues to say that most of the staff were not English speakers, while most of the residents spoke only English.

"The majority of (Good Samaritan's) staff is unable to communicate with the resident population due to language barriers," according to the report.

"No resident need be subject to the rudderless management and operations which exist" at Good Samaritan, the report continued.

On December 19, Deputy Chief Connolly and others expressed their frustration during a conference call with officials from the state agency. Book, the state senator, said she contacted the agency the same day.

The state filed an emergency suspension order of the facility's license that day.

"We have taken aggressive action to ensure the Good Samaritan facility will no longer be responsible for any residents, and this facility will be shut down by this Saturday, December 23," Mallory McManus, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in a statement on December 21. "We will continue to work with our partners, and with families to quickly and safely relocate all residents."

Book says that while she's glad the facility will no longer operate, she looks back and wonders why it wasn't closed back in October when the beating occurred, or nearly two months ago, after the other resident died.

"There are some questions the secretary (of the Agency for Health Care Administration) and I are going to have to go over," she said. "Why did it take seven weeks to shut this facility?"

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Retirement home shut down months after attack on 86-year-old

Students are unlikely housemates at retirement home — and wouldn’t have it any other way

On a clear day, the view from the rooftop patio of Kingsley Manor extends from the Pacific Ocean to beyond the downtown L.A. skyline. The ivy-covered brick walls of this four-acre Hollywood estate hold a gym, movie theater and an elegant dining room that serves three hot meals a day. This regal residence is an unlikely location for free student housing, particularly since it is a retirement community.

In a pioneering collaboration with the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, at least 60 USC Davis students have called Kingsley Manor home since 1984, earning room and board in exchange for two days of service each week. They teach yoga and languages, lead group-game sessions and art classes, providing smiles and support when needed.

“It is good to have youth around,” said Barbara Rosenbaum, 85.

Studies suggest that she is right — intergenerational programs have been linked to stabilizing cognitive decline, improving moods and decreasing pain. In addition, participation in social activities, like those the students lead, has been credited with improving the physical and mental health of seniors.

The students benefit, too. They say having seniors as roommates has brought them wisdom, friendships and daily reminders that abilities, not disabilities, should define older adults. This is a lesson that student Yuting Guan learned when a woman who could not see well requested some computer assistance.

“It turned out she knew more than me,” she said of the resident who ran two websites and had worked as a technology expert. “She taught me to connect the hard drive and told me which programs to quit.”

A few similar residential programs have recently begun in places like Ohio, Spain and the Netherlands, but Kingsley Manor’s is believed to be the only one specifically for gerontology students and is designed to help train future leaders in the field.

Shaun Rushforth MS ’08 is one of those leaders. He lived in Kingsley Manor a decade ago and is now the executive director. He said his experience as a resident makes him more empathetic as an administrator.

“I don’t know what it is like to be an 84-year-old man,” he said. “But I do know what it is like to live in a retirement community.”

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Students are unlikely housemates at retirement home — and wouldn’t have it any other way

Retirement Home to Pay $390K to Settle Lawsuit

NORFOLK, Va. (CN) - A Norfolk, Va., retirement home will pay $390,000 to settle federal claims it violated the Fair Housing Act by failing to afford all of its disabled residents equal access to facilities, sponsored events and motorized wheelchair usage.

In a complaint filed May 11 in the Norfolk Federal Court, the Justice Department said the Fort Norfolk Retirement Community, also known as Harbor's Edge, instituted policies that effectively segregated its resident population into distinct groups based on their level of disability and well-being.

A consent order filed at the same time as the complaint, and still awaiting the approval of U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan Jr., says that Harbor's Edge will pay $350,000 to residents harmed by the policies, and $40,000 to the federal government.

The agreement also requires Harbor's Edge to appoint a Fair Housing Act compliance officer and implement a new dining and events policy, a new reasonable accommodation policy and a new motorized wheelchair policy.

According to court documents filed by the Justice Department, Harbor's Edge is divided into two types of living facilities.

Independent living units are for those who need no assisted living and reside in a 17-story building called "Residential Tower." The assisted living, nursing and memory support residents live in a four-story building called the "Healthcare Building." The Residential Tower and Healthcare Building are connected by an interior corridor on the first floor.

The Residential Tower has four dining areas available to the public as well as residents. The Healthcare Building has several dining rooms as well. The assisted living unit has two dining rooms, and the nursing and memory support unit each have one dining room.

Harbor's Edge also hosts community events for residents and members of the public as marketing tools, including, for example, a party for the July 4th holiday.

Prior to May 2011 all residents of the Healthcare Building were permitted to eat at dining rooms located in the Residential Tower and attend events with the residents of the Residential Tower and members of the public.

But beginning in May 2011 and continuing to the present, the government says, Harbor's Edge has adopted a series of policies that prohibit, and then limited, residents living in the Healthcare Building from eating at dining rooms located in the Residential Tower and attending events with residents of the Residential Tower and the public.

Harbor's Edge adopted these policies because they wanted to market its facilities as a place for "younger seniors" who wanted an active lifestyle, the government says.

Because of these policy changes, the complaint says, spouses and friends who had dined and attended events together were no longer able to do so in the independent living areas.

On or about March 5, 2012, after several other dining and event policy revisions, Harbor's Edge again revised its policy allowing all residents of the Healthcare Building to dine in the independent living dining rooms with independent living residents in the Residential Tower if they passed a health screening, obtained a physician's consent and signed a release of liability. The March 2012 policy prohibited all residents living in the Healthcare Building from attending any events designed by Harbor's Edge as marketing events.

After the adoption of the dining room policies, residents and their families voiced opposition through letters to Harbor's Edge management and Board of Directors, met with the Virginia Long-Term Care Ombudsman, and circulated a petition to the Board of Directors asking that the policies be rescinded.

The Justice Department also says that beginning in about 2006 and continuing at least until April 2013, Harbor's Edge maintained a policy requiring any resident who used a motorized wheelchair or scooter to obtain prior approval from Harbor's Edge Staff, obtain liability insurance and pay a $300 non-refundable deposit before using their mobility aids on community property.

In a written statement, the management of Harbor's Edge said it is committed to full compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to its operations, and feels very strongly that the Justice Department was wrong in its view that that engaged in discriminatory behavior.

"We are committed to providing the highest quality of services to our residents. Protecting their health and safety is our top priority," said Neil Volder, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Harbor's Edge, in an interview with Courthouse News. "Our desire has always been to work jointly with the federal government and other regulatory authorities to clarify the laws pertaining to dining and event policies specific to those residents that are at a greater risk when dining or participating in activities without supervision of medical professionals."

Volder described Harbor's Edge as a success story and said he recently met with archtects to build a new residential building.

"We have about 350 residents and all of them are friends," he said.

Volder explained that Harbor's Edge implemented the new dining and events policy based on a "good faith belief" that it would be violating state regulations by continuing a longstanding policy of allowing nursing and assisted living residents to dine on our premises without having qualified medical staff present.

"After several medical incidents, two of which could have been life threatening, we had been advised by our legal counsel, liability insurer, and state regulators that our practice of allowing Healthcare residents to dine in an unregulated dining room posed risks to residents and created liability for the community," Volder said.

The problem for Harbor's Edge, he said, is that bureaucratic wheels move slowly. It took time to get the clarification the community needed to ensure it was both properly serving the desires of its residents and abiding by the law..

"Within 24 hours of receiving the state Department of Health's written assurance that allowing nursing residents to dine in an unregulated environment would not jeopardize our state license, we implemented revised dining policies that are almost identical to the policies just approved by the DOJ," Volder said.

The company said it has worked closely with the Justice Department over the past two years "to create policies and procedures that would ensure that residents would have access to all dining venues and activities but still comply with the state regulations in place to assure the safety and well-being of residents with standard medical protocols for nursing and assisted living."

Harbor's Edge said it agreed to the settlement to avoid the "enormous cost and distraction of litigation."

"Since the consent decree largely validates the dining policies we adopted prior to their investigation, and the cost our settlement is covered by insurance, this path was clearly the most beneficial for the community," Volder said.

"What was won? It's difficult to say," he continued. "I suppose what was really won in this case is that other communities like ours will now have a blueprint for what the DOJ will accept."

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Retirement Home to Pay $390K to Settle Lawsuit