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the biggest challenge
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with sexual abuse in nursing home cases
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is finding out what really happened the
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reason for that is twofold one
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the victim of sexual assault in a
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nursing home is often
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someone with severe moderate to severe
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cognitive impairment
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a serious dementia so that
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they have a very compromised ability to
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communicate
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relatedly the nursing homes often
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try to sweep this under the rug and so
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it’s most common that when sexual
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assault occurs the nursing home
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will delay reporting the incident
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to the authorities and that’s a problem
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because by the time the authorities are
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contacted it’s often the case
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it’s too late for the criminal
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authorities to gather
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evidence of the sexual assault it’s also
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they delay reporting this to the family
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so the family is not able
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to speak with their loved one
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close in time to when the sexual assault
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happened
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and relatedly since we often have an
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elder who can’t communicate what
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happened
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and by whom it presents some problems of
01:22
proof with us but again just like our
01:25
other cases
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we can go to documentation and then
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interviewing or deposing witnesses to
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put
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the pieces together even though we don’t
01:34
have the
01:36
type of evidence that say a criminal
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authorities
01:39
would have and what we’ve found is
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although a cognitively impaired elder
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can’t articulate to you how it happened
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and and why and how he or she is feeling
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about this
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but we find that their conduct going
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forward
01:56
will reveal that it happened and the
01:59
serious effect it has had so in those
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cases
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the family members coming in giving very
02:06
compelling testimony
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about what was your mother like
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before the sexual assault happened
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and then how was her behavior and what
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kind of things did she
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say afterwards and we have found that
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when they are
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sexually assaulted not surprisingly
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they will become very combative going
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forward
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very combative particularly with the
02:30
females that have been sexually
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assaulted they’ll be
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they’re not comfortable anymore with
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males
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being around them and we found in one
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case where the elder
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was start confusing the person who
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sexually assaulted it
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with even her husband any males that
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were around her
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she would reach out strike out
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and become very agitated so it has
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life-lasting effects
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but you’ve got to develop it not through
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the victim but
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through often family members who’ve
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observed the conduct
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after the sexual assault