Senior citizens require assistance if they cannot be taken care of at home. As such, you will find that every year, several elderly members of the household are shifted to assisted living set up or they have to shift to nursing homes for extra care.
However, it has been observed that the individuals that you entrust your old father or mother to are the ones that oftentimes end-up abusing them. The so-called incidence of nursing home abuse is on the rise and has risen several times over the years.
The good news is that you can seek legal help from reliable experts like Dennis Hernandez and Associates Tampa service providers that have proven track record for giving justice to the people that have been subject to such torture if you find that any senior member of your household that has been staying in a nursing home for care is subject to abuse. In this article, let us find out more about nursing home abuse under the following sub-topics, namely,
- What are the consequences of nursing home abuse?
- Statistical data implying the incidence of abuse
Let us take one sub-topic at a time in the paragraphs that follow-
- What are the consequences of nursing home abuse?
More and more household are opting for nursing home care for the elderly members. This is because with hardly anyone to take care of them, especially for the ones that require round-the-clock attention, the nursing home is perhaps the best option.
- What kinds of abuse do elderly members put up with?
Although these safe havens appeal to households as they can entrust their family members’ security here, the scenario is not always a welcome one. The type of neglect varies from one nursing home care facility to another. While in few there is shortage of staff due to which few individuals have to look after everyone present at the facility, few other reasons can be attributed to lack of adequate infrastructure and there are other instances when there are sexual predators or staff that try to siphon out money from their victims giving illogical reasons for abuse.
- Nursing home care- Hotbed for corrupt practices
Aside from the instances mentioned above, many people have reported rampant abuse and corrupt practices. However, the same holds true not for all care facilities but quite a number of them.
- Types of abuse for which you can seek legal help
As far as abuse is concerned, it can be in many forms, like the following-
- Yelling and threatening
- Isolating the elderly residents
- Terrorizing the nursing home residents by forcing to change lifestyle
- Sexual abuse
- Failure to perform all duties that were promised or has been agreed upon at the time of admission into the nursing home care facility
- Scapegoating
- Habitual verbal abuse
- Humiliating
- Misappropriation of checks that belong to elders
- Forging someone’s signature
- Stealing cash and house-holds goods
- Identity theft
- Investment fraud
- Not offering services for which you have paid money
- Overmedication and also not giving adequate medicines as required
- Medicaid fraud
Aside from the above instances, there are various other conditions for which you can file a lawsuit against the nursing home care facility.
- Statistical data implying the incidence of abuse
Statistical data indicates that millions of elderly members of the household have to be shifted to assisted care facilities, out of which few millions suffer abuse every year. However, sadly enough, you will find that only a few of the abuse cases are actually reported or people seek legal help for the same. Check out a few fast facts related to nursing home care abuse in the points that follow-
- Around 5,000,000 elderly members of the nursing home care facility are abused annually
- One of the many studies conducted on the same topic reveals that 1 in 10 senior members belonging to the age group 60 and above have been subject to abuse
- Approximately 24.3% of nursing home care residents experienced a minimum of one instance of abuse while they stay at a nursing home
- One out of 15 cases are actually reported, or families seek legal help
- A study conducted in the year 2018, reports that while South Carolina reported the worst services at the nursing homes, the best protection for elderly residents was in Massachusetts.
Nature of complaints- a breakdown
Check out the following facts-
- Physical abuse constitutes of about 27.4%.
- Physical or sexual abuse among residents accounted for 22.1% of all abuses.
- Gross negligence- 15.3%.
- Sexual abuse was found to be at 7.9% of all abusive cases.
- Financial exploitation and abuse reported was 7.9%.
Risk factors
Risk factors include the following-
- Instances of abuse among women patients are more as compared to men. Data reveals that 2 out of 3 elderly female residents are subject to abuse.
- If you have someone that is mentally challenged or impaired, he or she is at a higher risk of getting abused at the nursing care facility.
- Individuals suffering from dementia are susceptible to the exploitation.
- If there are inadequate medical facilities at the care centre, chances of abuse are higher.
- If you have a relative or an elderly member living in your household that has been a victim before, the chances are that there might be a repetition.
- There is a close interrelation between the socio-economic status of the resident and susceptibility of abuse.
Aside from the above, there are several other instances, that will increase the chances of abuse. However, an important aspect that you must keep in mind is that just for a handful of nursing homes that have been accused of misdeeds, drawing a conclusion about all nursing home care facilities for the same is incorrect.
There are many reliable and reputed elder care facilities that have proved to be safe havens for innumerable such patients that require assistance on a day-to-day basis.
As such, you always have the provision for carrying out a little due diligence before you entrust your loved one at the hands of the facility members or staff.
