A resident of a nursing home should not be subjected to verbal abuse – but sadly, it happens far too often. This is a form of emotional or psychological abuse, and is a danger to the health and wellbeing of an elderly resident of a nursing home. These actions can include verbal assaults, insults, humiliation, belittling, threats, profanity, shouting, and other forms of verbal abuse. There can be efforts to isolate the victim from family, including ensuring the patient is medicated to the point of an inability to communicate, or punishments could be imposed upon the elderly resident such as isolation, refusing to respond to questions or requests for help and other similar acts.
Verbal abuse is defined as any form of communication through either behavior, tone or actual words spoken with the intention to humiliate, degrade or treat a patient disrespectfully, or spoken words that leave the resident feeling emotional distress or fear and a feeling of powerlessness due to verbal threats. Personal attacks and devaluing statements that leave a resident in a state of emotional turmoil have a significant impact on the physical and emotional health of the person. This form of behavior is abusive, and has been found to be rampant in many facilities. Our older family members deserve to be treated with respect, kindness, and compassion, no matter what their condition may be. Many elderly persons are suffering from some form of dementia or other disability, and can be targeted by certain persons who enjoy the feeling of power over others.
Is your relative showing signs of verbal abuse? Does he or she act frightened of certain staff members, flinch from contact, or act depressed or afraid? There are various signs of verbal abuse, including the following:
As many residents are recipients of Medicare, the federal government has regulations that require nursing homes to maintain a standard of care that is acceptable. Cases of verbal abuse – also called emotional or psychological abuse – are known to be extremely detrimental to the health of nursing home residents. Although the end of life may be in sight, the elderly deserve respect that any person should expect when under care. The federal government, through the U.S. Department of Justice, contracts with each state and requires that there are annual inspections of nursing homes, and states are required to have systems in place to investigate complaints of abuse.
Nursing homes have consistently had problems in hiring and retaining quality staff to care for residents, and may hire staff who are simply not qualified to care for others. Your relative may have suffered verbal abuse because the nursing home was unable to find qualified workers, or for reasons of higher profits, chose to hire less qualified staff for lower pay. In any care facility, the health and happiness of the residents should be the most important issue in a nursing home, not corporate profits. When a nursing home is run with a profit motive, innocent people can pay a heavy price, and are subjected to emotional, physical, sexual or financial abuse.
If your loved one has been verbally abused in a Riverside nursing home, call Attorney Joel Bryant. Our firm is a powerful advocate for the elderly, and we will help you take proper legal action towards holding negligent parties accountable for the damage done to your loved one. Call now.