Supreme Court of Ohio Releases National Stalking Awareness Month Resources
The Supreme Court of Ohio recently released a comprehensive suite of educational resources to mark National Stalking Awareness Month.
These materials are designed to equip judges and legal professionals with updated tools to address domestic violence, strangulation, and stalking cases. A collection of online courses is now available for judicial officers and court personnel.
This suite includes the course "Misuse of Technology in Domestic Violence and Stalking" which addresses modern challenges in abuse cases. Additional courses in the bundle include "The Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Children and Families", "In Many Cases of Intimate Partner Violence: A Strangulation Case Review" and a dedicated course entitled "Stalking".
The Dickson Firm is committed to helping survivors of sexual assault. Attorney Blake A. Dickson is very involved in the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. He is on the fundraising board and works hard all year to raise money for this very important organization.
One of the most challenging aspects of sexual assault cases is that survivors are often reluctant to seek help and/or to pursue any type of case. Survivors are often even reluctant to report sexual assault. We see sexual assault in all different contexts.
Tragically, we see sexual assault in the nursing home. We have handled cases where one resident assaulted another. We have handled cases where staff assaulted a resident. Nursing homes are obligated to screen their staff. They are obligated to do a fingerprint background check. Nursing homes are not permitted to hire people who have been convicted of any number of a long list of criminal convictions. If someone has a history of violence, if they have been convicted of assault, if they have been convicted of a number of violent offenses, if they have been convicted of a number of offenses involving dishonesty, they are not legally permitted to work in a nursing home in Ohio.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, 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 that we can.
Nursing Homes are obligated to screen these people out so they do not work in nursing homes. If someone you love is in a nursing home, you must be vigilant about their surroundings. Moving someone into a nursing home requires moving them into an unfamiliar place where they are living with people that they did not choose to live with. Often nursing home residents have a roommate that they did not choose. They are living with a number of people. Nursing homes are obligated to assess each one of their residents thoroughly and to prepare a plan of care for them. They are not legally allowed to admit residents who are violent because that would put their other residents at risk.
Tragically, we have been involved in cases where a nursing homes brought homeless people into the nursing home because they could apply for funding through Medicaid and make money by housing these people.
Unfortunately, they did not thoroughly screen these residents. We have been involved in cases where a nursing home admitted a number of people who had a history of sexual violence. These people were sexual predators.
And yet the nursing home admitted them into their facility in order to make money. If your loved one is in a nursing home and they report any number of incidents to you that make you concerned for their safety, you need to have a detailed conversation with the Director of Nursing and/or the Administrator, and you need to make sure that they are safe. You need to ask the Administrator and/or the Director of Nursing, what the plan of care is to keep your loved one safe.
If you have a concern about another resident, you need to ask the nursing home about that resident. We have handled a number of cases involving situations where either a staff person or another resident has assaulted multiple residents, and yet the nursing home did not take any action to keep the residents safe.
If a resident in a nursing home is violent and they are aggressive toward other residents, then the nursing home should discharge that resident, send them to a different facility. As indicated above, the nursing home is not permitted to employ anyone with a history of violence. We have handled a number of sexual assault cases in the employment context.
Tragically, we have handled cases where a person has been assaulted by someone they work with, sometimes their boss. If you are concerned about your safety at work, you should report your concerns to your supervisor. If you are concerned about your supervisor, you should report your concerns to the person above your supervisor. If you do not feel safe at work, then you should act accordingly.
We have handled a number of cases where people have been violently assaulted at work. These are tragic cases with far reaching consequences.
Often people are reluctant to report sexual assault. When sexual assault is not reported, the perpetrator goes unpunished and tragically usually goes on to assault other people. If you were the victim of sexual assault and were hesitant about reporting it, call the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center at (216) 619-6192 or (440) 423-2020. https://clevelandrapecrisis.org/ They can have someone assist you through the process of reporting your assault and participating in the criminal prosecution of your assailant.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of sexual assault, whether in the context of a nursing home or at your job or in any other circumstances, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1-800-OHIO LAW. We would be happy to talk with you and to help you in any way that we can.