April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Fear and stigma can be tremendous barriers for survivors seeking support. Survivors often worry that no one will believe them. This is why sexual assault is one of the least reported crimes. They may feel ashamed or embarrassed as to what happened to them. They may feel partially responsible. They may ask themselves what they did to cause their sexual assault. Some survivors have heard their friends and family say things like, "you should be over that by now," or "why did that happen to you." These barriers have only intensified in recent years. These barriers could be particularly significant for male survivors of sexual assault.

One fabulous resource is the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. You can call or text them at (216) 619-6192 or (440) 423-2020. Sometimes survivors find it easier to text than call. The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has confidential services and community educational programs that are dedicated to clearing the way for healing to begin. Survivors can talk to a confidential counselor who can communicate to them that they are believed and that it was not their fault.

Every survivor deserves support no matter their age, gender or background. No matter how long ago the assault occurred, it is never too late to heal.

Each year the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center serves over 46,500 people in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake Counties. Their mission is the elimination of sexual violence.

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center was founded in 1974 in response to Cleveland's longstanding need for services to assist survivors of sexual assault. Before the 70's most people who had suffered sexual abuse suffered in silence. Feelings of guilt, shame or fear of women, children and men from speaking out about, much less reporting, their assaults. Lynn Hammond and Carrie Zander founded the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center hot line in 1974. A grant from the Cleveland and George Gund Foundations allow them to expand the hot line service and hire four (4) full-time staff members.

I remember when I worked in the Standard Building as a young attorney. The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center was a very small organization working out of a small office in that building. They used to host bake sales in the lobby to raise money. I remember many times showing up at my office with large quantities of baked goods having purchased half the inventory at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center bake sale.

Over the years the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has grown from a small grassroots volunteer run hot line service to an 80-employee non-profit organization providing counseling services, victim assistance in the justice system, and 24-hour services to survivors of rape and sexual abuse and their families.

In support of the vision and mission of the organization, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is committed to serve all survivors and those supportive of them regardless of age, gender, identity, sexual orientation, race, income ability or religion.

They are devoted to providing timely access to customized, results-focused services and programs. They are devoted to creating a safe, welcoming, healing and respectful environment where survivors and their loved ones can find support. They work to end the silence surrounding sexual violence and the stigma found within the community. They work to raise awareness about how cultural norms, media attention and societal acceptance or oppression relates to the incidence of sexual violence. They work to deepen the understanding that sexual violence is preventable and to incorporate a more holistic collaborative public health approach to sexual violence prevention. They share their expertise and knowledge about, and advocate for, evidence-based rape and sexual abuse practices and policies. They promote a trauma-informed work environment that empowers the staff and the volunteers that do their work to their fullest capacity and they support them in their efforts. They inspire teamwork in order to provide the best services to the community. The maximize their own resources and the community's resources to receive meaningful, measurable and financially sustainable outcomes.

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has offices in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake Counties:

Ashtabula Office
5021 State Road
Ashtabula, OH 44004

Clark-Fulton Office
2937 West 25^th Street, 3^rd Floor
Cleveland, OH 44113

Mentor Office
8224 Mentor Avenue, Suite 134
Mentor, OH 44060

Chardon Office
WomenSafe, The Greenhouse
12041 Ravenna Road, Chardon, OH 44024

Human Trafficking Drop-In Center
10450 Superior Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106

Shaker Square Office
13209 Shaker Square
Cleveland, OH 44120

It has been my sincere pleasure to work to support the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and to work with the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and to work with many survivors for over thirty (30) years.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of sexual assault and you would like to talk to us about a potential civil claim, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1 800 OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way we can. If you need counseling services or guidance please call the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center or text the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center at (216) 619-6194 or (440) 350-7364. https://clevelandrapecrisis.org

Sexual Assault in Ohio Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities

Tragically, we receive calls here at The Dickson Firm from families whose loved one has been assaulted in their nursing home or assisted living facility. We were recently contacted by a family whose loved one was raped in her assisted living facility. After an investigation, it turned out that the same employee who raped her, raped another woman and attacked another man who was a resident of the facility.

The assisted living facility told each of the families of these individuals that they had memory issues and that they were probably imagining what happened to them. As a result, the assisted living facility did not investigate the first two incidents which led to our client being assaulted.

Tragically, predators often seek out nursing homes and assisted living facilities as they present them with a number of vulnerable victims. Many of these victims cannot report the assault or if they do, they are not believed.

A sexual assault for a nursing home resident or an assisted living resident is particularly awful. The person's room in the nursing home is, in effect, their home. It is their only private space. It should be their safe space. And for most of these people, they do not have a choice. They cannot leave the nursing home. They cannot get away from the predator. They are a resident of the nursing home because they need care. They are a resident of the assisted living facility because they need care. And they cannot avoid being in the facility, and they cannot leave the facility.

So what can you do to keep your loved one safe?

First and foremost, you should take any report of assault or rough treatment very seriously and make sure that the facility does a thorough investigation. In the case that we were recently contacted about, if they had investigated the first complaint of sexual assault, they would have found the person, and he would have been fired and prosecuted. He was ultimately convicted of multiple counts of rape and sentenced to many years in prison. But only after our client was assaulted. We represented a woman whose son concealed a camera in his mother's room and that camera captured the staff physically assaulting her. Two of the employees in that case went to prison.

Here at The Dickson Firm we have handled a number of cases where assailants ultimately been sent to prison. Given our extensive work with the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and our representation of multiple clients who are survivors of sexual assault, and our extensive work representing residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the State of Ohio, we are uniquely situated to represent victims of sexual assault and their loved ones, particularly in cases where the assault occurred in a nursing home or an assisted living facility.

Nursing homes are required to screen their employees. If a person has been convicted of any of a long list of criminal offenses they cannot legally work in a nursing home or in an assisted living facility. Nursing homes are required to run a background check on each of their employees. Nursing homes should contact a potential employee's past employer and find out why they left their past employment. Were they fired? Did anything happen? Most nursing homes and assisted living facilities do not do that.

If you are thinking of placing your loved one in a nursing home or in an assisted living facility, ask the staff how they screen potential employees. Ask the staff if they do anything to screen those employees once they are hired. One of the biggest problems is that most screenings only occur when the person is first hired to work at the facility. If they commit a crime thereafter, often the nursing home takes no action.

We represented a family of an individual who was severely neglected in a nursing home and ultimately died. It was discovered that one of the nurses at the facility was arrested for possession of narcotics that were not hers. She had a series of prescriptions that did not belong to her. The nursing home had a problem with narcotics being stolen from the nursing home. This nurse was arrested and put in jail for an extended period of time. The nursing home knew she was in jail. And yet they continued to employ her. She was ultimately convicted of narcotic possession. The nursing home still did not fire her. She worked there until her two year reporting period as a nurse came up and she had to self-report the criminal conviction. When she self-reported the criminal conviction, she lost her license as a nurse. Only after she lost her license as a nurse, was she fired from the nursing home as a nurse, and the nursing home hired her back to work in the kitchen. She worked there as a nurse for months and months having been arrested and ultimately convicted of narcotic possession.

Nursing homes often do a horrible job of screening their employees and monitoring their employees to make sure that they don't have any criminal convictions or other incidents that would make it improper, if not illegal, for them to work at the nursing home. Sexual assaults that occur in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are devastating to the residents. Many lawyers reject these cases because the resident has diminished capacity and they have memory issues.

In the case that we just handled, the assisted living facility told the families that their loved one was in the memory care unit and was having memory issues and issues with depression and was probably just making up the assault. In reality, all three assaults actually occurred. All three residents were accurately describing what had happened to them. And yet the assisted living facility did nothing and convinced their families to do nothing.

We here at The Dickson Firm work incredibly hard to hold the owners and the operators of these nursing homes and these assisted living facilities accountable for these horrific assaults that have devastating consequences on these residents. We work with experts to develop the damages. We are relentless with discovery and we find out how many instances occurred at these facilities. We dig into the background of the assailant. The nursing homes and the assisted living facilities fight us tooth and nail in disclosing other incidents. They want to convince us that the incident that occurred with our client was isolated. In most cases it was not. In most cases the nursing home and/or the assisted living facility did not respond properly to prior complaints about the person which is what led to the assault.

If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at 1-800-OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.