Consumer Alert:

Nursing Home Abuse

By Welch, Gold & Siegel – Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., Pennsylvania

Whoever said life begins at 40 may have been right. But fast forward 30 or 40 years when it's your responsibility to put a frail grandparent or aging parent suffering from dementia in a nursing home. Now it's a numbers game that nobody wants to play.

Are all nursing homes bad? No, but abuse against elderly, helpless, sick, and mentally challenged victims continue to multiply. Nursing home abuses are on the rise because nursing home patients have no voice or no advocate to watch over them night and day; huge numbers of people are growing older=more people in nursing homes which means more nursing home abuse; and there's a high turnover of low level nursing home jobs. Without a central database to check if personnel committed abusive crimes in other states, the door is wide open for more crimes to be committed.

What exactly is nursing home abuse? Abuse is defined as physical, emotional, financial, and as disturbing as it sounds – sexual abuse. And then there's general neglect. Here are some examples:

Physical abuse includes hitting, pinching, burning, biting, beating, shaking, slapping, choking, pushing or shoving to severe beatings and restraining with ropes or chains. Physical abuse may also include purposely over or under medicating, depriving the elderly patients of food, and exposing patients to severe weather whether deliberately or accidently.

Emotional abuse consists of humiliation, intimidation or threats, name calling, and isolating the person from family, friends, and regular activities. Nursing home patients with some to severe dementia have a diminished ability to fight back or report the emotional abuse.

Financial abuse is the misuse of resources for someone else's benefit without the victim's consent such as embezzlement and includes fraud, taking money under false pretenses, forgery, forced property transfers, purchasing expensive items with the elder's money without their knowledge or permission, or denying the victim access to his or her own funds or home.

Sexual abuse is disturbing because nursing home patients cannot defend themselves or give consent. Elder sexual abuse happens by coercing through force, trickery, threats, or other means into unwanted sexual activity and can range from sexual exhibition to rape, inappropriate touching, photographing the person in suggestive poses, forcing the person to look at pornography, forcing sexual contact with a third party, or any unwanted sexual behavior.

Neglect is a passive type of abuse when nursing home personnel doesn't provide food which contributes to malnutrition; doesn't provide water which causes dehydration; and doesn't adequate clothing, shelter, hygiene, medication as well as intentionally failing to meet the physical, emotional, and social needs of the patient. Neglect causes bed sores which can be fatal.

Nursing Home Abuse Law Firm

The decision to put an elder grandparent or parent in a nursing home is a difficult one. When abuse rears its ugly head, people often don't know where to turn. Please call the Pennsylvania law firm Welch Gold & Siegel to help you proceed and/or recommend resources. Your loved one deserves better!