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Nursing homes are meant to be places of safety and security for elders to enjoy their golden years in comfort. However, humans run nursing homes, and unfortunately, humans are flawed.
Nursing home abuse is more common than any of us would like to admit. It could take the form of physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, or neglect in care. If you or a loved one has suffered from nursing home abuse, you may be able to sue the employee responsible or the nursing home itself, depending on the circumstances.
At Wruck Paupore, our South Bend nursing home abuse lawyers will work diligently to ensure that your instance of nursing home abuse does not go unpunished. To get a free initial case review, call our offices today at (219) 322-1166.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are five categories of nursing home abuse: physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, financial abuse, and sexual abuse.
This is the most straightforward of the nursing home abuse categories. When nursing home staff engage in harmful intentional conduct, such as slapping, kicking, or pushing residents, they have engaged in physical abuse.
Physical violence is not necessary to demonstrate nursing home abuse. Any verbal or even nonverbal behaviors that intentionally cause psychological distress or fear in a resident will be considered nursing home abuse. Common examples may include public humiliation, name-calling, or unnecessary deprivation of freedoms such as seeing visitors.
Nursing home abuse does not need to be intentional. If a nursing home fails to provide residents with basic needs such as food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical and hygienic care, the results can cause serious damage to a resident’s physical and mental state. Talk to our South Bend nursing home lawyers about when the behavior of a nursing home might be considered neglectful by a court.
The elderly are particularly susceptible to financial crimes, particularly those that suffer from psychological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. This creates the opportunity for staff to abuse their relationship and power over a resident to steal from them or otherwise scam them.
Our firm does not handle financial crimes so we can focus our practice on physical abuse and neglect. However, if you suspect any possibility that your loved one’s funds are being misappropriated, you should immediately call local law enforcement as well as file a report with the Indiana Attorney General’s office.
We don’t like to think about topics as scary and distressing as sexual abuse in nursing homes, but that does not mean that it isn’t a serious problem that is reported more than you might think. Unwanted sexual acts of both the physical and verbal nature are considered nursing home abuse. This includes both sexual assaults by staff or by other residents that could be prevented through proper security in the nursing home.
There are over 500 accredited nursing homes in the State of Indiana. When a nursing home is negligent, reckless, or intentionally harmful in its care for its residents, and this conduct results in injury to a resident, the nursing home has engaged in nursing home abuse. When reported, these instances of abuse are collected by Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare.
Every year, over 40,000 instances of nursing home abuse occur in the State of Indiana alone. Over a third of nursing homes currently in operation have been cited at one point for an instance of abuse. This is even more concerning considering that roughly one out of every 14 cases of abuse are reported at all.
Women are targeted for abuse in nursing homes at a substantially higher rate. Despite the black population of Indiana being around 10%, more than 20% of all nursing home victims in Indiana are black.
Nursing home residents are bestowed with certain rights that their caretakers may not deprive them of. These rights come from both Indiana state law (specifically, Indiana Code Title 12, Article 10, Chapter 3) and federal laws, such as the Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA). Our South Bend nursing home abuse lawyers are familiar with these laws and can help you apply them to your case.
These rights extend further than the right to be free of neglect or abuse. Nursing home residents also have rights to privacy, dignified treatment, freedom of communication, informed consent to medical care, and changes in treatment. Nursing home residents may also refuse treatment or file complaints without fearing retaliation from the subject of the complaint.
These rights still exist if the resident’s condition forces them to designate a medical power of attorney. Medical powers of attorney are common for residents who suffer from severe mental deficits that hinder their ability to make decisions about their care. Still, the person who holds the medical power of attorney has the right to view personal medical records and be consulted about any non-emergent medical care changes before they are made.
When nursing home abuse occurs, the resident who was abused can file a lawsuit against the responsible party to recover damages in line with the abuse. The first step in this process is determining who is liable for the damages.
Nursing homes owe certain responsibilities to their residents, such as the safe and secure operation of facilities, prevention against diseases, and diligent hiring and training practices for staff members. If the nursing home falls short in any of these areas, they will be liable.
In fact, Indiana imposes a heightened standard of care upon nursing facilities and group homes under the standard established by the Indiana Supreme Court in the 1989 case of Stropes by Taylor v. Heritage House, Childrens Ctr. of Shelbyville, Inc., 547 N.E.2d 244, 245 (Ind. 1989). In this case, a disabled 14-year-old with cerebral palsy was sexually assaulted by a nurse’s aide while he was in a group home charged with providing for the child’s security and well-being. The Court found that the home could be held responsible for both compensatory and punitive damages arising from the assault even if the acts were not related to the nursing aide’s employment.
Specifically, Stropes established that the nursing home’s duty to its residents is a “non-delegable duty” to ensure the safety of persons in its care. Under this authority, the duty to protect residents in its care is inherent to the nursing home’s business, which includes providing for their safety and care. Thus, nursing homes have a heightened responsibility, or duty to use “extraordinary care” to protect residents because they are fully aware of the disabilities and infirmities of those placed in their care.
The law in the area of nursing home abuse in Indiana is unique and requires a deep understanding of the law in this area as well as the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act, which is often applicable to nursing homes.
If you suspect that you or a loved one was the victim of nursing home abuse, our South Bend nursing home attorneys can help you assess who and how to file a lawsuit.
Think that you might have a case? We can help. Get in contact with us today by calling (219) 322-1166 and we will provide you with a full case evaluation, free of charge.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
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Wruck Paupore P.C.
Injury Lawyers
275 Joliet St. Suite #250
Dyer, IN 46311
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