Henderson Nursing Home Abuse

Types Of Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home abuse can take different forms. The common ones include:

Verbal Abuse

Some nursing home employees usually use statements in certain ways to cause fear, embarrassment, distress, or emotional pain in a resident. These include yelling, name-calling, shouting/screaming, threatening/intimidating, swearing, infantilizing/belittling and falsely accusing. 

Nursing home verbal abuse is serious. It can lead to mental issues, including depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety.

Physical Abuse

Verbal abuse can escalate to physical abuse, but it’s not unheard of for the latter to happen without the former. Physical abuse in a nursing home includes hitting, pushing, slapping, pinching, kicking, shaking, burning, biting, and improper use of physical restraints, among other actions that cause physical pain or injury.

This type of Las Vegas nursing home abuse can result in physical health problems and psychological issues. Victims of physical abuse in nursing homes also have an increased risk of death than those not abused.

Sexual Abuse 

Sexual abuse is another common form of abuse in nursing homes in Henderson, even though it’s significantly underreported. Examples include:

• Unwanted touching
• Rape
• Sodomy
• Coerced nudity (forcing a resident to take off their clothes)
• Sexual photography (taking sexual photos or videos of a resident)
• Threatening to rape
• Forcing a resident to watch pornography

Any resident can be a victim of sexual abuse, but some are more susceptible — those who are older or with mental health conditions, such as dementia.

Sexual abuse can lead to unexplained bleeding/incontinence, bruises, fear, depression, and sleep disturbances.

Emotional Abuse

Verbal and emotional abuse are substantially related since verbal assault results in emotional effects. However, other actions committed by nursing home staff can be considered emotional abuse. 

These include encouraging a resident to pay to be favored/given attention, isolating a patient (prohibiting them from spending time with other residents or loved ones), refusing a resident to participate in social activities, withholding basic needs, denying a resident privacy during phone calls, and intentionally taking too long to give them food or medication.

Financial Abuse

Another concerning type of Henderson nursing home abuse is financial abuse. This can happen when an employee at the facility:

• Cashes out a resident’s personal checks without authorization
• Uses a resident’s bank account or credit card without permission
• Steals cash, jewelry, or other valuable items from a resident’s room
• Forges a resident’s signatures or financial documents to access funds
• Manipulates a resident into giving money or property
• Overcharges services or charges for services not offered
• Changes a resident’s estate planning documents without their consent

Similar to how we negotiate settlements in Henderson workers’ comp cases, our lawyers will ensure you get a settlement promptly and seamlessly if you experience any form of abuse in a facility.

Neglect

The above-discussed types of abuse are actions that result in an injury or serious risk to a resident. Although still considered a kind of mistreatment (as abuse is), neglect is different because it’s inaction or a careless mistake. It may not be intentional. 

A nursing home staff member may intentionally or unintentionally fail to provide the necessary care to a resident. Regardless of the circumstance that led to neglect, a resident may still suffer harm. Hence, you also need to work with a nursing home abuse lawyer to fight for your rights or those of your loved one.

Examples of neglect are not giving a resident proper personal hygiene, food, water, medication, shelter, personal safety, and so on.

Not changing a resident’s position in bed (one with mobility issues), resulting in bedsores, and failing to protect a resident from falls/accidents are also forms of neglect. Our Henderson accident attorneys are skilled in fighting for anyone who sustains injuries due to another party’s negligence.

Abandonment

When a nursing home employee who agreed to care for a resident leaves without notice or during an emergency, they may have abandoned the resident. An employee being intoxicated at work can also be an example of abandonment, as they won’t be able to perform their duties. 

A facility can also abandon residents when they don’t hire enough people. Understaffing is a leading contributing factor to most forms of nursing home abuse and neglect.

Our nursing home abuse lawyers can help you gather the needed evidence and report the case to the facility and the appropriate state department. We will help you understand the damages you can recover and the complexities of your nursing home abuse lawsuit.

Nevada Nursing Homes Must Report Abuse

When a resident or a loved one of a resident informs a nursing home of abuse, neglect, or abandonment, the facility must report the case to the administrator of the facility, the Bureau, and other officials by telephone, in writing, or by other electronic means. This should be done immediately or within 24 hours of knowing or suspecting the incident. If the facility fails to do this, it may have violated a state law.

Cases involving life-threatening abuse or sexual abuse may need to be reported to law enforcement as well.

How To Tell If Nursing Home Abuse Is Because Of The Facility

Even though nurses, housekeepers, and other employees are typically the perpetrators of nursing home abuse, an incident may happen because of a facility. Different factors can help you to identify this, including understaffing, incompetence, poor management, and inadequate facilities.

If the staff-to-resident ratio in a facility is unrealistic, mistakes are likely to happen. If a nurse is required to serve seven or more patients, a good number of these patients may receive their medication late. If this ratio applies to housekeepers, some patients will be delayed when it comes to receiving personal care services, such as having a clean room or bed linens. 

A facility should have enough professionals to meet the needs of all residents or limit the number of residents they admit to avoid cases of understaffing-related abuse.

Incompetence due to poor hiring practices or inadequate training can also put fault of a case on the facility. Additionally, a facility needs a reliable management team that ensures everything works smoothly, from housekeeping to administration. Abuse due to poor management may be because of the facility.

Nursing homes with inadequate beds, toilets, and medical equipment, among other supplies, generally experience issues like overcrowding and hygiene challenges, which can increase the chances of abuse or neglect.

What Are Nursing Homes Required To Do?

Nursing homes in Henderson must adopt and carry out written policies and procedures that prohibit mistreatment and neglect of residents, abuse, corporal punishment and involuntary seclusion, and the misappropriation of property of patients. 

Furthermore, as mentioned before, facilities must report any alleged violation according to state laws. Besides reporting, the facility shall develop a corrective plan to ensure the violation never repeats.

The State Board of Health will review the plan to ensure it meets federal and state regulations. If it doesn’t, the board will ask the facility to revise its plan. If the facility fails to meet the requirements to the board’s satisfaction after a revision(s), the board may ask the state agency funding the facility to withhold funding until it meets the needed requirements of the plan.

Is It Negligence Or Abuse? Does It Matter? 

As stated before, abuse is committed intentionally, but negligence can be intentional or unintentional. Another difference is abuse is an action, whereas negligence typically involves inaction. For this reason, they can be treated differently under the law — abuse can be viewed more as a criminal matter and negligence as a civil matter. 

For example, a nursing home employee who commits physical abuse may face a criminal charge, and another who is neglectful may face a civil lawsuit. 

Nonetheless, both abuse and negligence can harm a resident or result in wrongful death. Our Henderson nursing home abuse lawyers will help you understand your case in-depth and, in turn, determine the steps to follow when filing a lawsuit.

What Should I Do?

If you or your loved one has experienced nursing home abuse in Henderson, you need to hold the employee or facility accountable for their action or inaction. At Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys, our nursing home lawyers will listen to your experience, explain your options, and help you receive fair compensation.