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The Difference Between Nursing Home Abuse And Neglect

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse and neglect is widespread throughout the United States. Tens of thousands of elderly adults in the country suffer major injuries or death living in facilities that promise they will provide caring support and assistance for seniors. If you have a loved one in a nursing home facility that was the victim of abuse, working with an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer can help you hold the proper parties accountable for their actions, and help your elderly family member receive justice under the law. The compassionate attorneys at Chuck Franklin Law can review your case and discuss with you what options are available to obtain compensation. Call today to schedule a free no-obligation consultation at 480-545-0700.

Understanding Nursing Home Abuse

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that elder abuse is common in the United States. According to the CDC, one in 10 adults over the age of 60 will experience mistreatment at some point in their life. Nursing home abuse is when one of the employees, other residents, or a third party visitor in a nursing home harms a resident. The injuries suffered from nursing home abuse can result include massive trauma, life-threatening emergencies, and in some cases, death.

Understanding Nursing Home Neglect

By contrast, nursing home neglect happens when a resident of a nursing home facility is ignored or does not receive proper care or attention. Nursing home neglect is just as prevalent as nursing home abuse. When nursing home neglect happens, a resident can develop both physical and mental issues. Nursing home neglect takes place by not providing residents with their basic needs such as:

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Hygiene and bodily care
• Medical care
• Medication
• Assistance with daily needs such as eating, drinking, or going to the restroom
• Clothing

If any of these are missing from your loved one’s daily life in a nursing home, you may want to take additional steps to discover if your family member is suffering from any kind of neglect or abuse.

Inadequate Staffing in Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are notorious for not having sufficient staffing that get the right amount of training to take care of their home’s population. While not every nursing home worker has malicious intent against the residents they serve or are suffering from other issues that could cause them to inflict harm, there is no doubt nursing home abuse and neglect is a prominent and serious issue in the United States. Inadequate or insufficient staffing be to blame for any issues you encountered with your loved one’s nursing home facility. Consider the following:

• Facilities struggle to find a caring staff and keep them. When a facility has a high turnover rate, there is not much personal investment by newly hired staff in their important job of caring for elderly residents. Limited staffing puts pressure on employees to work long hours which can be draining.
• Nursing homes fail to comprehensively screen new staff to ensure they are both safe and up to the job’s requirements happens when there is a rush to find people willing to take the job. A facility that is struggling to attract and sustain staff, may not make screening new applicants a priority. In 2020 alone, as high as 20% of all nursing homes in the country were understaffed.
• A nursing home may not properly train staff to attend to the needs of the resident population. Residents living in a nursing home have a wide range of unique needs that must be addressed appropriately.
• Some nursing homes are focused more on profit and less on providing high-quality care. Mismanagement is another leading cause of how nursing home abuse can happen. When this happens, the money that is taken in may go more towards management’s bottom line over being invested into the essentials like purchasing necessary care items, making repairs and keep up the home, and increasing staff pay.

The outcomes of improper staffing in a nursing home can result in serious injuries, accidents, or even death. Reach out to the medical malpractice attorney at Chuck Franklin Law if you suspect that your loved one is being abused.

Common Injuries Resulting from Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

It is easy to see how forceful abuse and physical harm, as well as neglect may be detrimental to a nursing home resident. Shockingly, the Center for Victims of Crime report that more than 50% of nursing home staff admit that they have engaged in behavior that would be considered physical violence, mental abuse, or neglect of their elderly resident population.