Sober Living Home House Managers are responsible for the safety and well-being of residents.
They can do too little or try to provide services they aren’t qualified to provide. Their negligence may end up allowing a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Sufferer to be injured or to fatally overdose.
Families can hold the owners of Sober Living Homes fully liable for a tragic wrongful death.
To find out how families can hold large corporations fully liable, call us today or fill out a free case review form.
A House Manager in a Sober Living Home
A House Manager serves as a coordinator, a rule enforcer, and a supervisor in a California Sober Living Home.
Residents are often coming out of a detox or drug rehab facility. They can be looking for a sober living situation to help them slowly re-enter normal life. A House Manager helps with that transition.
A House Manager is pretty much an all-purpose leader and friend to residents.
They can be required to handle these and other duties:
- Shows potential residents and their families around and provides information about the home.
- Checks in new residents. Assigns a bedroom. Goes over the rules (e.g., no drugs, visitor policies, and curfews)
- Enforces rules. Monitors for the presence of drugs and drug use.
- Makes sure patients are getting medical support and professional counseling outside of the facility.
- Makes sure residents receive peer support from roommates.
- Helps residents show up to their jobs each day to keep a schedule.
- In some homes, House Managers perform drug tests.
- Maintain a safe property and perform chores; maintain fire code safety.
- Monitor for residents who may be at risk of suicide.
- Prevent theft and assault among residents.
- Respond to emergencies. Administer NARCAN after an overdose. Contact 911.
When Is a House Manager Responsible?
A House Manager who is negligent in any of these duties can leave a Sober Living Home owner or company liable if a patient comes to harm.
That might include a situation where a patient sits in a room for hours in an overdose reaction without being checked on. It might involve a patient who is allowed to commit suicide after many signs were ignored.
Residents are not at fault for their own deaths, and families can seek wrongful death support after a tragic accident.
It may be a House Manager’s fault, but their employers are the ones who must bear the responsibility and provide support. The employer is subject to vicarious liability for the mistakes their staff members make.
What Shouldn’t a House Manager Be Doing?
Most sober living homes don’t have to be licensed by California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). As long as they don’t offer medical services or professional counseling, they wouldn’t have to submit to the DHCS.
But sometimes House Managers can go too far and offer care that they aren’t qualified to provide. This can endanger the residents and even contribute to a tragic death.
These are a few of the things House Managers should not be conducting:
- Detox services
- Diagnose medical disorders
- Diagnose mental health disorders
- Provide professional counseling and treatment plans
- Prescribe and dispense medication
- Make claims that the Sober Living Home will provide certain services that it is barred from offering
House Managers who provide care to patients that isn’t allowed and cause them to get hurt may leave Sober Living Home owners fully liable.
Families who lose a loved one at a sober living home can also question whether a House Manager broke the company’s own policy or the promises that were made. These factors can make it easy to prove that a sober living home’s employee contributed to a tragic accident.
See: How a Sober Living Home can be liable for a suicide
Support for Families After a Sober Living Home Accident
Families can file wrongful death claims and hold Sober Living Home owners liable.
That means families get help in paying the bills that usually follow a tragic death. They would also be in line to receive help in the future, when a loved one can no longer help families stay above water financially. It might be a spouse who can’t pay the mortgage without that weekly income, or children who can’t afford school supplies.
A skilled California Rehab Facility Wrongful Death Lawyer makes sure these difficulties are the sober living home’s parent company to worry about:
- Money to cover burial expenses
- All hospital bills, including emergency response, paid for
- Replacement of the paychecks the victim can no longer contribute to the family’s support
- Support for the emotional trauma the family will continue to experience (e.g., a loss of care, protection, guidance)
- Support for lost family moments (e.g., weddings, holiday gatherings, the birth of children)
Contact Us if Your Loved One Was Allowed to Die in a California Rehab
To make sure family members don’t forfeit their right to support, Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to all loved ones. It’s a no-risk, no-obligation way to find out what a wrongful death case would be worth and how to hold a negligent sober living home business fully responsible.
Remember, there are no upfront costs to you and your family if you need to hire a lawyer. We aren’t paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check a negligent recovery business must write.