Nursing Home
Abuse & Neglect
Placing your loved one in a facility is never an easy decision, even when it’s the best choice for everyone involved. You should be able to trust the people caring for them, and it can be heartbreaking when you find out you can’t.
Unfortunately, nursing home abuse is widespread, making it essential to know what to do if you suspect abuse or neglect. The more informed you are, the more empowered you will be to protect the people you love.
Table of Contents
- What Is Nursing Home Abuse?
- Understanding the Different Levels of Care
- Types of Nursing Home Abuse
- Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Occur?
- Signs You Should Look Out for if You Suspect Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes
- How To Report Nursing Home Abuse
- Helping Prevent Nursing Home Abuse
- Keep Your Loved Ones Protected From Nursing Home Abuse
What Is Nursing Home Abuse?
Nursing home abuse is the mistreatment or neglect of a long-term care facility resident. It’s unfortunately common, with nearly two-thirds of surveyed staff members admitting to abuse in a single year.
Given the vulnerability of nursing home residents and the challenges with communication that may occur with older adults, it’s difficult to determine conclusively how many residents experience abuse. Some experts estimate that official reports represent just 1 in 14 cases of elder abuse, with the rest going unreported.
Reporting suspected elder abuse is essential for the victim’s sake and the safety of those who cannot or will not speak for themselves. If you suspect a loved one is experiencing abuse or neglect in a nursing home or other facility, it’s critical to record any evidence you can find. Bringing that evidence to authorities is the first step to stopping abuse.
Understanding the Different Levels of Care
Elder abuse and neglect do not only happen in nursing homes. Older adults can be vulnerable in any setting, including:
- Independent living: Communities where older adults live on their own, either in apartments or stand-alone homes. These communities do not offer daily living assistance or medical help, but residents may hire in-home providers.
- Assisted living: Residential communities where seniors can get help with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, grooming, and medication management. Residents typically have their own rooms or apartments but may eat in a group dining room and participate in scheduled activities.
- Skilled nursing: The traditional “nursing home” setting. A skilled nursing facility provides 24-hour supervision and more medical support than residents would receive in assisted living. Physical therapy and other rehabilitation services may be provided.
- Memory care: A long-term care setting for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Memory care facilities typically have secured entrances and staff available 24 hours a day.
- Continuing care: Arrangements where residents can receive increasing levels of care as needed without transferring to a different organization. Residents may start in independent living and progress to assisted living or skilled nursing care as needed, often without leaving the community’s campus.
Residents who depend more on daily care may be more vulnerable, but mistreatment can happen in any community. Prevention and advocacy start with understanding the risks.
Types of Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing home abuse is often used as an umbrella term that covers any inpatient elder abuse. This abuse can take many different forms, including:
- Physical abuse: Hitting, pushing, pulling, or otherwise causing bodily harm to the older adult. Using excessive force while “helping” a resident with daily care is a form of physical abuse.
- Psychological and emotional abuse: Threatening, yelling at, belittling, or manipulating an older adult. For example, an emotionally abusive staff member may act on their frustrations by insulting a resident or attempting to convince the resident that their family doesn’t care. Statistics suggest this is the most common form of elder abuse in nursing homes.
- Sexual abuse: Forcing the older adult to participate in or witness explicit interactions. A staff member touching a resident inappropriately while bathing or toileting is sexual abuse.
- Financial abuse: Stealing from or committing fraud against an older adult. This can happen on a small scale, such as personal purchases on the resident’s debit card, or on a large scale, such as taking out loans in the resident’s name.
- Neglect: Ignoring or refusing to meet the older adult’s physical and emotional needs. Neglect in an understaffed nursing home can be systemic, with multiple elders not receiving the nutrition, personal assistance, and medical care they need.
Abuse and neglect can happen in any facility, but the quality of staffing and management makes a significant difference.
Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Occur?
Nursing home abuse happens because a potential abuser is in a position of power over a vulnerable elder. A number of factors can lead to a lack of oversight or accountability for staff in institutional settings such as long-term care facilities.
Staff Shortages
According to a recent American Health Care Association (AHCA) study, 99 percent of U.S. nursing homes have vacant positions. A staggering 94 percent of nursing homes struggle to recruit new staff, and over 70 percent say their staffing levels are lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Facing such shortages, nursing homes may feel pressure to hire workers who may not be the right fit. They may ignore red flags that a person may not be equipped to handle the physical, mental, and emotional challenges of working with elders who have high care needs.
Shortages can also make it difficult for nursing homes to provide sufficient staff training and support. Without the skills to provide proper care and interact appropriately, some staff may make harmful choices.
Failures of Management
With or without staffing shortages, some nursing homes may be unable to maintain their property and staff effectively. This leads to persistent safety risks, including trip and fall hazards, and a lack of staff supervision that allows abuse to go on unchecked.
Some nursing homes even intentionally overlook best practices in favor of “efficiency.” Instead of making the tough choices of restricting admissions or scaling down enough to provide quality care, they prioritize profits, cutting staff and allowing residents to suffer.
Failure To Take Accountability
In some nursing home facilities, persistent elder abuse is a deliberate choice. Family members and residents file complaints with leadership, but facility managers and owners neglect to take action until the situation worsens. Those facility leaders are responsible for the resulting abuse and neglect, and families deserve to hold them accountable.
Signs You Should Look Out for if You Suspect Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes
With many nursing home residents unable to recognize or report abuse themselves, it often falls to loved ones to notice the signs. These may include:
- Unexplained injuries: Ask about any bruises, cuts, burns, fractures, or other injuries you notice. If the nursing home refuses to provide a detailed explanation, staff may be covering up abuse.
- Frequent falls: Fall prevention is one of a nursing home’s most essential tasks. If your loved one has fallen several times, it could signal neglect or poor facility maintenance.
- Sudden Weight Loss: Sudden and dramatic weight loss may signal nutritional neglect or the facility’s failure to notice a medical issue. It may also stem from anxiety or depression, both of which are common among abuse victims.
- Poor Hygiene: Proper nursing care involves diligent bathing and grooming. Failure to provide this care is abuse.
- Bedsores: Also known as pressure ulcers, these painful sores result from lying or sitting in the same position for an excessively long time. Facility staff are responsible for regularly moving mobility-impaired residents to prevent them.
- Fearfulness or Withdrawal: Abuse victims often feel ashamed of what happened and may withdraw from loved ones.
- Unusual Changes in Behavior: Loved ones who start acting “strangely” may be experiencing abuse but not know how to talk about it.
- Medication Issues: Intentionally or unintentionally giving residents the wrong medicines or withholding medication is abusive.
- Unsanitary Living Conditions: Nursing homes should be clean and free of unpleasant odors. Poor cleaning practices are neglectful and abusive.
- Restraint Marks: Unexplained bruises or sores, particularly on the wrists or ankles, can indicate that staff has restricted the resident’s movement.
- Staff Avoiding Questions: If staff members are unwilling to answer your questions, they may have something to hide.
- Sudden Financial Changes: New financial problems are a common indicator of financial abuse.
When in doubt, investigate. It’s safer to raise a concern and be mistaken than to hold back and potentially allow abuse.
How To Report Nursing Home Abuse
1. Document the Abuse
If you believe a loved one is suffering abuse at a nursing home, start gathering as much physical evidence as possible. Take photos of any injuries. Document conversations that make you suspect abuse or neglect, and keep track of the senior adult’s financial transactions.
2. Report Abuse to the Facility
Facility leadership is the first point of contact for reporting abuse. Contact the head of care staff or senior leadership if you have their contact information. If not, call the facility’s main number and ask to speak to someone responsible for resident services.
3. Contact the State Department of Health or Aging
State authorities oversee nursing homes and other long-term care centers. Ask if they have procedures for investigating family complaints or violations of residents’ rights.
4. File a Complaint with Adult Protective Services (APS)
APS departments are explicitly responsible for preventing abuse of adults. The National Adult Protective Services Association publishes contact phone numbers for every U.S. state.
5. Notify Law Enforcement
If your loved one is in immediate danger or you believe someone has committed a crime, contact local law enforcement in the city or town where the facility is located.
6. Contact an Attorney
If you suspect you have a nursing home abuse case, it’s unlikely to be the only incident at that facility. The nursing home may have a history of abusing or neglecting its older residents, at which point a lawsuit may be the most effective way of taking a stand.
Helping Prevent Nursing Home Abuse
Abuse thrives where no one is watching. The best thing you can do to protect your loved ones is to know what’s going on where they live.
The first step is to choose a nursing home with a good reputation. Ask friends and neighbors for recommendations, and use Medicare’s Care Compare tool to check ratings.
After placement, make time to visit regularly. When you visit, pay attention to your loved one’s mood and overall well-being. Build relationships with staff and talk to them about any concerns. The ones who truly care will appreciate it, and any potential abusers may be more wary. It also helps to familiarize yourself with nursing home residents’ rights so you can reference them if issues arise.
Keep Your Loved Ones Protected From Nursing Home Abuse
You care about keeping your loved one safe, even if they don’t live under your roof. Watching for signs of nursing home abuse allows you to take action and report the issue before it’s too late. If you suspect abuse or neglect in your loved one’s residential facility, trust an experienced nursing home abuse law firm and seek legal help today.
