Adult protective services are there to help you protect the older adults in your family. These services can be used to investigate allegations of abuse or harm to someone you love. Sometimes, a wrongful death can be attributed to poor care, and it can be investigated by adult protective services and other organizations, especially if there are allegations of abuse, neglect, or other kinds of exploitation.
Sometimes, long-term injuries and abuse lead to a wrongful death. For instance, if you have a loved one who suffered constant neglect, like the failure of a nurse to provide the medications needed, then a wrongful death may not have been far behind. Knowing the history of what led up to that death can help you speak with your attorney and make a claim for compensation.
This compensation should allow you to cover funeral costs and medical bills, but it will also allow you to show how neglected and abused your loved one was at a nursing facility, hospital, or other location and to hold them accountable for their behavior through a financial loss. A criminal case may also be launched, but that would be started by the authorities.
How can you tell if someone you love is being abused or neglected? Check for signs, like bruising or complaints of harm. Knowing that the abuse or neglect is happening can help you get the adult protective services involved early enough that you could be able to prevent an unnecessary fatality. In cases where you had no idea what was going on, investigating the harm that has allegedly gone on can help you put together the pieces of an untimely death.
Source: FindLaw, “Statutory Protection of Older Persons,” accessed Oct. 22, 2015