Nursing Home Lawyer

Placing yourself, a family member, or a loved one in the care of a nursing home is a difficult decision. You’d hardly expect that you may have to seek compensation someday for nursing home abuse or neglect. Unfortunately, nursing home abuse and neglect is a growing concern that affects hundreds of elderly adults each year. If you feel that you or someone you love has been mistreated during your stay at a long-term care facility, make sure to seek the appropriate legal counsel to advise you.

What Qualifies as Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect?

While each state is different, most of them define neglect of an elderly person as the failure to adequately provide him or her with the assistance that is fundamental to health and safety. This includes failure to provide clothing, shelter, food, adequate supervision, and medical care.

The difference between negligence and abuse generally has to do with intention. Intentional restrictions to the abovementioned necessities fall under abuse, while careless mistakes will generally be framed as negligence.

Common Reasons for Abuse or Neglect

Studies have shown several factors that can contribute to the neglect or abuse of residents in long-term care facilities. Some of these factors include:

• A staff that is neither qualified or properly trained
• Retention of staff members that are not qualified
• Staff members who have a history of violence
• Inadequate staffing to meet the needs of the facility
• Isolation of residents 
• Knowledge of the underreporting of nursing home abuse or neglect
• Improper securing of the facilities

What If I Don’t Have a Contract?

Residents or their survivors are entitled to seek redress for harms caused by improper care received at a nursing home, regardless of whether or not they have a contract with the facility. There are several laws that allow for recovering of damages either with or without a binding contract with the nursing home.

What About Exploitation?

Exploitation is generally defined as using an older person’s resources for profit or advantage. Exploitation falls under the abuse category because it is usually an intentional misuse of an elderly person’s assets. Some states specify that financial resources must have been obtained either without the elderly person’s consent, under false pretenses, or under duress or influence. Still, other definitions are broader and include all manners of the misuse of an elderly person’s property, person, or funds. You will have to check your state’s laws to determine what is applicable to the situation.

Knowing that you or someone you love has been abused or neglected is hard enough to deal with. Make sure to hire an experienced attorney to help you through this difficult time. You deserve to receive damages for what has happened without the stress of going through it by yourself. Contact a skilled nursing home abuse attorney, like a nursing home abuse attorney in Trenton, NJ, for more information.

Thanks to Davis & Brusca Trial Lawyers for their insight into the difference between nursing home abuse and neglect.