The Nursing Home Abuse Injury Lawyers Columbus Trusts

Columbus, Georgia Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers

Protect Your Rights

Types of Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect Claims

When your loved one is physically abused or denied basic care, they may have a right to seek compensation for the neglect or mistreatment. Nursing home neglect and elder abuse in residential facilities for seniors can take a variety of forms including:

Failure to Provide Basic Needs: At a minimum, nursing home facilities are expected to provide residents with reasonably sanitary conditions, access to medical care and hygiene, nutrition/hydration, medication and similar basic necessities. When a Columbus nursing home denies residents access to such basic needs, a Columbus nursing home resident may have a legal claim for financial compensation.

Physical Abuse: This involves physically manhandling or intentionally hurting residents and causing physical injury.

Sexual Abuse and Misconduct: Many seniors are unable to prevent sexual assaults or lack the capacity to consent to sexual activity. When seniors are sexually exploited by nursing home staff or sexually abused by other residents because of the lack of supervision, this may be a basis for imposing liability on a Columbus nursing home facility. This type of abuse may include inappropriate sexual contact, assaults, rape, molestation, exposure to pornography or other forms of non-consensual sexual conduct.

Financial Exploitation: When staff or management use or steal the money, property, assets or other financial resources of residents including forcing residents to sign over bank accounts, property, investment vehicles or similar financial assets, or even change their wills or estate plans, this may constitute financial abuse.

Abandonment/Restraint: Columbus nursing homes that undertake the care of residents may neither abandon them or use physical or chemical restraint to avoid providing for their needs. Conduct like unjustified use of physical restraints, administering medications like sedatives or simply locking a resident in one’s room may constitute abuse or neglect.

Emotional Abuse: This may include acts such as verbally berating or demeaning residents.

Suspect Abuse? Here’s What to Look For.

While nursing home abuse and neglect will sometimes show obvious signs, it may be a challenge to distinguish age-related medical conditions like Alzheimer’s disease or dementia from the negative impact of abuse. Family members should be diligent about watching for signs of abuse which may include:

• Bedsores and unexplained bruises or other injuries
• Mental confusion
• Unexplained fractures
• Lack of hygiene (i.e. clothes that are soiled or smell of urine)
• Refusal to interact with family
• Changes in mood including depression or anxiety

Abuse Statistics

Physical Abuse According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), one in five nursing home residents will experience abuse.

Psychological Abuse According to a study completed by the National Center on Elder Abuse, psychological and emotional abuse makes up over 33% at institutional centers.

Financial Abuse Some negligent nursing home staffers have even tricked or coerced residents to sign over power of attorney to them, allowing them to have complete control over their finances. It’s reported that a staggering $2.6 billion each year is lost by residents due to financial abuse.

Who Is Responsible?

The nursing home itself, sometimes in addition to individual staff, may be found liable for a variety of things including but not limited to:

• Improperly trained staff
• Improper hiring standards
• Failure to adequately supervise staff
• Failure to report abuse