My last blog discussed the trial of Cesar Ulloa, a former employee of a very upscale retirement home, Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas, who was charged with elder abuse for physically assaulting and abusing residents of the retirement home. Here is the update- the trial has ended and he was convicted!
Jurors only deliberated for five hours to find that Cesar Ulloa was guilty of all eight counts against him. Cesar could get life in prison when he is sentenced. They didn’t need to deliberate any longer after hearing that he laughed as he abused the residents. Because many of the residents had dementia, they couldn’t understand what was happening and couldn’t get help.
Rita Kittower, who was the widow of one of the victims cried thru the trial, and said, "My husband can now rest in peace, and I can live in peace." Rita is the one who had received an anonymous phone call after her husband’s funeral telling her about the abuse. When they started looking into the allegations and started to get suspicious about Cesar, they found that there were other victims. The families of the victims felt that the jury verdict was fair and “justice was served.”
Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas is supposed to be a very upscale and posh retirement home which costs more than $70,000 a year to live there. One would assume for that kind of money that residents would get the best care possible and would be treated gently and caringly.
I think that Silverado should be help accountable for the abuse of their employees. The victims should bring an action against Silverado and ask for damages for their suffering and abuse. Unless the retirement home is held accountable for this kind of elder abuse, we will never see any change. Cesar was just a low level employee who was not properly trained or supervised. It was the responsibility of the retirement home and its owners to make sure that they supervise, train and teach their employees how to do their jobs in a caring and loving manner. The fact that they didn’t have cameras in the rooms shows that they couldn’t ever see how these patients were being treated when they were being changed, bathed or fed. How was Silverado supervising if the patients had dementia and could not communicate with any supervisors?
The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-elder-abuse9-2010apr09,0,7841577,print.story
Your commitment to elder abuse prevention is indeed palpable in your writing. I wrote a book called "The Heart Way - A Journey from Corporate to Care" about taking a time-out from my career to care for my elderly parents for five years. When I had to return to work, the wonderful job I found was at Silverado Senior Living's headquarters in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I'm the Senior Director/Marketing Communications. Because you are a student, I'd like to invite you to visit a Silverado community with me, and perhaps Steve Winner, our chief of culture, to learn about what we have implemented since the tragic incident that happened in 2007. There is a reason Silverado is an award-winning company when it comes to elder care, and why we win "Best Company to Work For" (Orange County Register, Texas Monthly Magazine) in surveys of our associates. Feel free to contact me. Take a look at our web site and maybe our Facebook Fan Page. We care. You might also enjoy my personal blog: shannoningram.blogspot.com just for frame of reference. Thanks for your passion about this incredibly important issue in our society.
ReplyDeleteI also work for Silverado and would encourage you to visit a community. The first time I visited a community it shattered my previous notions of a stereotypical “retirement home". Their caregivers and associates are amazing people of all ages. Personally I feel that age is someone inconsequential, since recently a 20 year old working at Silverado-Belmont Hills was nominated for Assisted Living Federation of America’s Hero award for his wonderful work with the memory-impaired.
ReplyDeleteIf you check out their website you would learn a lot about the many steps they took to create a world class elder care prevention program, that they reduce the prescription of medications in most of their residents, and choose to never restrain people. Should my parent or relative ever suffer from a memory impairment I hope that they live near a Silverado community. They believe in showing people dignity and respect, one of the reasons they don’t record people changing or bathing in their rooms. It’s very unfortunate that someone like Cesar slipped through the cracks and was able to pass every security measure, even to the point of earning employee of the month (that requires some impressive acting). The sad fact is that bad people are in every business and every corner of life. The best we can do is to try and prevent it. I hope you visit and see the other side and not just what was printed in the LA Times.
Here is a link to Silverado’s website with the CEO’s comments about the trial:
http://www.silveradosenior.com/memory_care/Calabasas_CA/zip_91302/silverado_senior_living/2563