Nursing Home Abuse Can Come From Unlikely Sources

Nursing Home Abuse

When we think of nursing home abuse, we often think of abuse by nurses, staff members, or individuals of the like. However, new studies are exploring the prevalence of abuse of residents by other residents, and the numbers may shock you.

Resident-Resident Abuse

The study, conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, found that 1 in 5 or 20% of residents were abused during the one-month study. The researchers classified the abuse as “mistreatment,” which ranged from name-calling to physical violence. The researchers noted that most of the attention in terms of nursing home abuse is placed on the staff abusing the residents. They noted, however, that this study may shed some light on a future focus of resident-resident nursing home abuse.

Solutions

There unfortunately is no hard and fast solution to nursing home abuse, be it abuse by a staff member or resident. Yet, there were a couple important factors pointed out, one of them being that nursing homes are often noted as overcrowded. This can contribute to potential tension inside the nursing home between the residents and increase the likelihood of bad blood. One researcher equated the resident-resident nursing home abuse to bullying in school. It is his hope that education can teach residents that abuse is not the answer, similar to how schools tend to teach students that bullying is not the solution. We at Evans Law Firm support the rights of all of our elders and know that nobody should ever be abused, no matter where or with whom they spend their time.

Contact Us

If you or a loved one has suffered from nursing home abuse in Marin County or in any California county, contact the Evans Law Firm elder attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with complex financial contracts and large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.