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Sex Offenders in Nursing Homes

By Beth Janicek

A male resident at La Salle County Nursing Home who molested 10 female residents earlier this year has been moved from the nursing home to an unidentified psychiatric facility. Incidents, such as this one, have led to the questions:

• Can sex offenders live in county homes?
• What has the county done to protect women at nursing homes?

The La Salle County Nursing Home has taken more than a dozen steps after the Illinois Department of Public Health said that administrators failed to protect female residents from the molestations of a male resident. Steps included four staff meetings addressing matters of abuse prevention, resident rights, and incident investigation. Female residents were questioned and care plans were updated. In addition, the chairman of the La Salle County Board's Nursing Home Committee will start directly supervising and overseeing the homes administration.

Even though the male resident has since been removed from the home, according to records there is still a registered sex offender in the county home. There is no indication that he had anything to do with the series of incidents involving a resident molesting several female residents. However, there are specific guidelines that must be followed by nursing homes involving sex offenders.

In Illinois, the nursing home is required to tell the Illinois Department of Public Health about any resident who is a sex offender and must do a 'risk analysis' of the offender to determine whether staff will be able to care for the offender and to prepare a care plan. The sex offender must be placed in a private room and the home is required to tell residents, prospective residents, and families they can ask whether an offender lives at the home.

I am currently handling a claim involving the nursing homes standard of care in protecting residents from sexual assault. A male resident returned home from a baseball game after being served alcohol, gained entrance to a cognitively impaired female resident's room and sexually assaulted her. The nursing home failed to protect the resident from being sexually assaulted resulting in the physical and mental injury of the resident. It is exceptionally important for facilities to properly monitor and supervise to ensure the safety of all their residents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on July 11, 2009 (boomark / email).