Nursing Home Abuse Overview
Nursing Home Abuse Resources
Nursing homes, also known as convalescent homes, provide medical attention to elderly residents and also assist them with daily activities, such as dressing, showering and toileting. Most nursing homes residents are over the age of 85. While many nursing homes provide a safe and nurturing environment for seniors, abuse within nursing homes has emerged as a serious problem in the United States. All states have enacted some form of elder abuse prevention laws, which criminalize the physical abuse and financial exploitation of elders, and the state may prosecute such crimes as felonies.
Types of Abuse
Nursing home abuse may take the form of physical, mental or financial abuse. The most common types of physical abuse endured by nursing home patients include beatings, sexual assaults and forced ingestion of food or medicine. Physical abuse may also be inflicted by neglect, which occurs when a caretaker refuses or forgets to feed or clothe the patient, or assist the patient with personal hygiene. Neglect also includes the failure of the nursing home to care for existing health conditions or protect patients from health and safety hazards.
Nursing homes commit mental abuse when they verbally or emotionally mistreat, humiliate, insult or threaten their patients. Mental abuse may also include situations where the nursing home denies patients the right to exercise personal choice, such as when they want to get out of bed or eat.
Nursing homes financially abuse their patients when they take advantage of the patient by stealing or unlawfully coercing the patient to give them funds or provide for them in their will.Causes of Abuse
Nursing home abuse results primarily from understaffed nursing homes, stressful working conditions and inadequate staff training. Some reports state that over half of American convalescent homes fall below the suggested minimum staffing level for nurse's aides, and that more than one-third of nursing homes fall below the minimum staffing level for registered nurses. Understaffing results in overworked employees who tend to "burnout" and lose empathy and patience with nursing home residents. An understaffed nursing home also results in less time for individual care and assessment of patients, which may lead to the neglect of patient needs. Nursing home employees are also often subject to physical and verbal abuse by residents. While many employees are able to understand the cause of this behavior and deflect the resident's anger, others choose to punish patients who act out. Finally, many nursing home employees are not properly trained to provide adequate care to patients, or to emotionally cope with the demands of the job. As a result of their poor training, nursing home residents may receive sub-standard care.
Nursing Home Reform Act
The Nursing Home Reform Act governs all nursing homes that receive federal funds. The Act requires that a nursing home evaluate each resident and give the resident an individualized "plan of care" that reflects the best possible mental and physical treatment of that patient. Other significant requirements under the Act include that nursing homes be sufficiently staffed, that a physician be available 24 hours a day, that patients are provided with adequate nutrition and hygiene, and that the nursing home environment promotes patient dignity and respect. If a nursing home fails to meet a regulation, a deficiency is issued. Approximately 25% of nursing homes are found to be deficient each year.
A number of resources are available to victims and families of nursing home abuse, including the National Center on Elder Abuse and the Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Resource Center.