What is Nursing Home Abuse and When Can You Sue?
According to the National Council on Aging, 10 percent of seniors in nursing homes suffer abuse. As tragic as it sounds, senior citizens aged 60 and above suffer various forms of abuse at the hands of those mandated to care for them. Some acts of abuse they suffer are outrightly criminal or grossly negligent, necessitating legal intervention.
This post outlines nursing home abuse and advises you when to enlist a Forsyth County nursing home abuse attorney to defend your loved one’s rights.
What is Nursing Home Abuse?
Let’s start by distinguishing nursing home abuse from neglect. Abuse occurs when a caregiver intentionally injures, intimidates, or inflicts any form of punishment on a person. The abuse can be mental, emotional, physical, financial, or sexual. Negligence cases tend to focus on a worker’s unwillingness or inability to fulfill their legal and contractual obligations towards residents.
Below are the leading forms of nursing home abuse.
- Financial - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that financial abuse occurs when perpetrators use the finances intended to help the elderly illegally, inappropriately, and without authority.
- Psychological - It occurs when facility workers coarse, intimidate, harass, belittle, humiliate, and terrorize nursing home residents.
- Physical - Physical abuse occurs when a nursing home worker slaps, hits, burns, cuts, or bruises an elderly person.
- Sexual - Nursing home residents can suffer sexual assault by nursing home staff, other residents, or even visitors to the facility.
When to Sue a Nursing Home
The preceding paragraphs clearly show that home nursing abuse is a heinous crime. However, how do you know when you should sue an abusive or negligent nursing home? Here are the leading reasons that lead to a lawsuit against such a facility.
- Rogue and incompetent staff - If the nursing home has grossly incompetent employees who abuse, neglect, and intentionally harm patients, such workers show the facility’s negligence in providing trained caregivers.
- Neglected and non-secure environments - You may also sue a nursing home for neglect and abuse if it fails to keep its premises reasonably safe. The facility’s failure to prevent slip and fall accidents could result in an elderly patient’s injury.
- Violation of federal or state regulations - The law allows you to sue a nursing home if it receives Medicare funds and doesn’t abide by state or federal regulations.
- Inadequate medical attention - Failing to provide sufficient and quality medical treatment elders deserve is another ground for suing a nursing home facility. Failure to turn patients who are immobilized can result in pressure sores which can lead to death. This is one example of low-quality treatment that could harm residents.
- Intentional and tortious actions - You may also sue the facility for intentional and tortious actions committed against residents.
- Careless supervision - Lastly, sue a nursing home if it fails to supervise residents. If they fall and injure themselves, they should face legal proceedings.
Contact a Cumming Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Right Away
Nursing home abuse and neglect occur in Georgia and the rest of the U.S. Do you have a loved one suffering in this way? Don’t let them suffer alone. You can contact a nursing home abuse attorney in Cumming GA, and Forsyth County, GA. Call our team today at 770-887-1209 or online and secure justice for your loved one.