Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect

With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many (far too many) are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming, stimulation and turning - almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored and deprived of social contact and stimulation. Because of insufficient and poorly trained staff commonly found in nursing homes (a common problem caused by corporate owners who are more concerned about their bottom line than the care they should be providing), care givers are often overworked and grossly underpaid that often results in rude and abusive behavior to vulnerable residents who beg them for simple needs such as water or to be taken to the bathroom. We strongly encourage you to read Nursing Homes: Getting Better Care There. If you are a current client, while supplies last, we will provide you with a copy on request at no charge.

Abuse and neglect in a nursing home includes the following:

Abuse includes:

• Assault
• Battery
• Sexual Assault
• Sexual Battery
• Rape
• Unreasonable physical constraint, or prolonged or continual deprivation of food or water
• Use of a physical or chemical restraint or psychotropic medication for any purpose not consistent with that authorized by the physician

"Neglect" is the negligent failure of any person having the care or custody of an elder or a dependent adult to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person in a like position would exercise.

Neglect includes, but is not limited to:

• Failure to assist in personal hygiene, or in the provision of food, clothing, or shelter
• Failure to provide medical care for physical and mental health needs.
• Failure to protect from health and safety hazards
• Failure to prevent malnutrition.

Federal and State laws require that nursing homes develop a plan of care and employ sufficient staffing to provide ALL the care listed on the care plan. Because many corporate owned nursing homes today are not sufficiently staffed, they do not provide ALL the care listed on the care plan. Consequently, residents are not taken to the toilet when necessary, they are often left lying in urine and feces, develop painful and life threatening pressure sores (decubitus ulcers), are not fed properly, are not given sufficient fluids, are over-medicated or under-medicated, are dropped causing painful bruises and fractures, are not cleaned or groomed, are ignored and not included in activities, are left in bed all day, are not turned, call lights not answered promptly or not at all, etc., all forms of neglect.

If you are aware of good nursing homes in your area, let us know so we can pass that information on to others. Also, if you are having problems with a nursing home in your area, give us that information as well. We want to know. If your loved one is being abused, we know how to put a stop to it and how to help you respond. Let us know if you need assistance.

• Nursing Home Law Outline
• Report: Abuse in Nursing Homes
• Nursing Home News: National Senior Citizens Law Center
• The Silienced Voice Speaks Out
• Elder Abuse in Residential Long-Term Care Facilities: What Is Known About Prevalence, Causes, and Prevention: Excellent overview of elder abuse by Catherine Hawes, Ph.D., and given as testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, June 18, 2002
• NCCNHR Fact Sheet
• Nursing Homes: More Can Be Done to Protect Residents from Abuse, US General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress from March 2002, on law enforcement's role in responding to and investigating allegations of nursing home abuse
• Elder Abuse in Institutional Setting

  © 2004, Law Office of David L. McGuffey, LLC

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