Nursing Home Abuse
Information Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys | Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits
What is Nursing Home Abuse?
The term nursing home abuse refers to the mistreatment of an elderly person living in a care facility such as a nursing home, assisted living facility, or rehab center. Older adults are vulnerable to abuse for a variety of reasons, including physical limitations, cognitive decline, and the inability to communicate.
What's more, elderly, frail and disabled adults are dependent on caregivers for daily essentials such as food, water, medicine, and hygiene, creating a potentially dangerous power dynamic. A caregiver may threaten or intimidate a patient in order to keep them quiet about the abuse.
While nursing home abuse is caused when an individual caregiver takes advantage of their power over vulnerable patients, the facilities are clearly to blame for this grievous treatment. When nursing homes cut corners to maximize profits, employees don't receive the training, supervision, or compensation they deserve. Caring for the elderly is a difficult job, and disgruntled employees may resort to ill treatment of their patients.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home abuse can take many forms, including:
- Physical abuse such as rough handling or blatant physical violence
- Sexual abuse involving sexualized conversation, forced sexual contact, or exposure
- Neglect as in the failure to provide basic daily needs including food, water, medicine, toileting, or bathing
- Emotional or psychological abuse involving hurtful or violent language, manipulation, threats, intimidation, or coercion
- Abandonment as when a patient is left for periods of time without care or interaction, or left behind in an unsafe living condition when a facility is evacuated
- Financial exploitation such as when a care provider bribes or takes advantage of a patients' generosity, or blatantly steals
What are the signs of nursing home abuse?
In some cases, signs of nursing home abuse are clear and obvious: an elderly patient with unexplained bruises or bed sores, or whose bank account has suddenly emptied. But in many other cases, loved ones may be unaware of the abuse for some time due to the complex power dynamics at play.
Caregivers have a degree of access and power over their patients that make nursing home residents particularly vulnerable. And it may be difficult to tell truth from fiction when an elder suffers from dementia or cognitive decline. Fear of retaliation or not wanting to be a bother to their adult children keep many abuse victims from reporting the mistreatment outright; many others may lack the wherewithal to identify the treatment as wrong It is the responsibility of the nursing home to ensure its staff are providing professional care at all times.
Signs of nursing home abuse include:
- Tension: When an older adult is mistreated, they may be afraid or unwilling to report. Seeming sad, angry, or tense can be a sign of mistreatment.
- Money loss: Sudden loss of financial resources may be a sign of abuse.
- Changes in behavior: as in the failure to provide basic daily needs including food, water, medicine, toileting, or bathing
- Visible injuries such as bedsores or bruises: An immobile patient who is not moved often, bathed, or whose bedding is not changed may develop bedsores; A patient who is handled roughly may show signs of bruising.
- Lack of food, water, grooming: If some basic care seems to be lacking, there's a good chance more extensive abuse is taking place.
What should I do if my parent is experiencing nursing home abuse?
Our attorneys work with families on nursing home abuse cases frequently, and we know many families feel a sense of guilt upon discovering nursing home abuse. Please do not blame yourself! Remember, ensuring quality care and protecting residents from harm is the primary responsibility of the nursing home facility. Your parents deserve better, and we're here to help you achieve the justice they deserve.
There are methods within a care facility to report nursing home abuse, but we don't recommend this as a long-term solution. By reporting an individual caregiver, the blame falls to that person and allows the nursing home company to shirk responsibility. In fact, nursing home abuse can usually be traced back to larger problems in the management of the facility.
