Monroe Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

Helping Clients Protect Their Elderly Loved Ones from Elder Abuse

When an aging parent or other family member can no longer safely live on their own, and you’re unable to meet their needs by yourself, entrusting their care to a nursing home or assisted living facility makes sense. Choosing a safe, supportive long-term care facility can allow you to breathe a sigh of relief that your loved one is in good hands.

However, not all nursing homes can be trusted to provide the quality care their elderly residents deserve, as some staff members are guilty of committing elder abuse or neglect. If you suspect that your loved one is a victim of this type of abuse, you should contact trusted Monroe nursing home abuse attorneys to seek justice.

At Benton & Benton Law, we believe Georgia families deserve to have peace of mind as their elderly relatives settle in to local long-term care facilities. If you’re feeling concerned about elder abuse, we urge you to immediately contact us for legal representation so we can begin advocating for your family. While there are certainly some high-quality nursing homes across Georgia, too many facilities have widespread issues with abuse or neglect toward their vulnerable residents.

This is why our legal team is committed to helping clients identify and prove nursing home abuse before taking legal action on behalf of elderly loved ones. If you’re ready to learn what your legal options are when it comes to protecting your family from neglect or abuse, call our Monroe law office for a free consultation with caring nursing home abuse lawyers.

What Is Nursing Home Abuse?

When you choose a nursing home for your parent, grandparent, or other aging relatives, you expect them to get high-quality medical care, assistance with their hygiene, and a secure, comfortable environment to reside in. They deserve to feel cared for, safe, and content in their new home, not scared or in pain. If you have reason to believe they’re unhappy, fearful, or in danger at their nursing home, they may be a victim of abuse.

Nursing home abuse is defined as an intentional act by a staff member that seriously harms the resident or even puts them at risk of death. While nursing home abuse often results in physical injuries, it can also lead to negative effects on the victim’s emotional, mental, and financial state.

Such effects are never acceptable, which is why caring nursing home abuse attorneys vigorously advocate for elderly residents who have suffered abuse of any kind. If you’re worried about your loved one, consider the most common types of nursing home abuse, and then contact us to take legal action as soon as possible.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is among the most commonly reported types of nursing home abuse, likely because it usually results in physical injuries. After all, this kind of abuse describes any violent, forceful acts that a staff member makes toward a resident.

In many cases, these violent acts are meant to cause pain as a way to unfairly punish or intimidate residents so they do what the staff member demands of them. In other cases, the serious injuries are a result of staff members attempting to unlawfully restrain residents with complete disregard for their safety or comfort. Either way, the use of force can lead to serious consequences that could range from bruises and broken bones to permanent injury or death.

Some examples of physical abuse in nursing homes include:

Hitting
Shoving
Kicking
Using unnecessary restraints
Pulling hair
Pinching
Scratching
Burning

If you’ve noticed injuries on your loved one any time you visit them in their nursing home, and no one can give you a believable answer as to how these injuries occurred, contact our Monroe law firm for legal advice. Our nursing home abuse attorneys can help determine if you should take legal action against the nursing home or assisted living facility responsible for your loved one’s injuries.

Emotional Abuse

Another type of nursing home abuse that some senior citizens unfortunately suffer is emotional abuse. Though it doesn’t leave physical scars, it causes emotional pain and distress, which can be serious enough to cause noticeable personality and behavioral changes in your family member. This can even lead to some physical changes, such as weight loss and changes in posture as a reaction to constant humiliation and manipulation.

Examples of emotional abuse on the part of staff members toward residents can include the following:

Shouting
Screaming
Aggressiveness
Rough handling
Threats
Humiliation
Sarcasm or other forms of bullying
Blaming
Forcing degrading acts
Lying
Purposely ignoring their needs

If your loved one seems depressed, withdrawn, or scared of any staff members, they may be experiencing emotional abuse. No one should have to feel this way in their home, so it’s important to seek help getting them out of such a toxic environment. Contact our nursing home abuse lawyers today to learn how we can help.

Sexual Abuse

Nursing home residents can be victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by predatory staff members and even other residents. They might believe they can get away with it due to the sense of shame victims often feel after sexual abuse, though some predators threaten their nursing home abuse victims to ensure they stay quiet. This type of elder abuse is defined by any type of nonconsensual sexual contact, including:

Sexual harassment
Unwanted touching
Sexual assault
Sexual battery
Forced nudity
Rape

Some signs of sexual abuse in a nursing home can include changes in behavior, sexually transmitted diseases, and injuries to the genital area. If you believe your loved one is a victim of this type of nursing home abuse, contact our Monroe law firm for help seeking justice through the legal system.

Financial Abuse

Senior citizens can become targets of financial abuse, in which case someone takes their money and other assets without asking. The victims of this type of elder abuse might not be aware that someone has stolen from them, and even if they are, they often feel powerless to do anything about it.

This may be because the nursing home is typically supposed to have their financial information to pay for the services they need, so it can be hard to identify or prove when an employee has misused the resident’s money. The following are some examples of how employees of nursing homes and assisted living facilities might commit financial abuse:

Using bullying tactics to get the resident to give them money
Threatening or intimidating the resident into putting them in their will or signing over assets
Misusing the resident’s funds meant to pay for the nursing home
Lying about the amount they owe for nursing home services so they agree to pay more
Applying for credit cards and loans in the resident’s name
Using the resident’s credit cards, checks, or cash without their knowledge

If your elderly family member suddenly lacks the money to pay their bills, has exceeded their credit card limits, or has several new financial accounts they don’t remember opening, they could be a victim of financial exploitation by a nursing home employee.

The Georgia nursing home abuse lawyers you hire can investigate the situation and let you know how to proceed with the legal process to hold the nursing home accountable. Call our Monroe law offices today for help taking immediate action.

What Is Nursing Home Neglect?

Nursing home abuse isn’t the only danger that could affect elderly family members in nursing homes. There is also neglect, which is slightly different from abuse, but just as risky for seniors to endure. More specifically, nursing home neglect occurs when caretakers fail to meet all the needs of their residents, often leading to injuries or death. While nursing home abuse is intentional, neglect can be either deliberate or unintentional. Either way, failing to meet the essential needs of residents can result in injuries or fatalities.

Underlying causes of nursing home neglect often include:

Understaffing: When there are not enough employees to care for the number of residents in a nursing home, the result is often neglect or abuse, since the staff lacks the time or patience to provide quality care
Overburdened staff: Some nursing homes entrust their staff with a high number of tasks in a day, which makes it difficult for them to give residents the attention they need
Negligent hiring: When a nursing home hires unqualified or untrustworthy employees, the residents often suffer abuse or neglect as a result
Insufficient staff training: Some facilities don’t spend enough time training new employees, so residents end up with pressure ulcers, infections, injuries, and an overall lack of proper care because the staff doesn’t know how to prevent these issues
Poor management skills: When nursing home managers are inexperienced or simply don’t care enough about the residents, they don’t provide the resources, supervision, facility repairs, or staff training necessary for the best outcomes.

There are different types of neglect that nursing home residents can suffer from. They include the following:

Medical neglect: This can occur when caretakers do not provide the necessary medical treatment, which could include forgetting to administer medication or giving the wrong medication to residents. It can also include failing to treat injuries, illnesses, and medical conditions, causing them to become more harmful or even deadly
Basic needs neglect: This is when the nursing home staff fails to meet the basic needs of residents. Examples include neglecting to provide residents with essentials like adequate food and water and a clean place to live. As a result, they might end up dealing with dehydration, malnutrition, and an increased risk of illnesses and infections
Personal hygiene neglect: Nursing home employees are supposed to help residents with their hygiene when necessary. This often includes providing any necessary assistance with brushing their teeth, washing their hands, bathing, or changing into clean clothing. Failure to offer this kind of help can cause residents to suffer from health issues, dental problems, increased risk of illness, and feelings of shame
Social and emotional neglect: Caretakers who ignore elderly patients and don’t let them interact with other nursing home residents are guilty of neglecting them socially and emotionally. Examples of this type of neglect include shutting their door so they can’t see or hear their fellow residents, not allowing them time with visiting family members, and not giving them the mobility devices they rely on to move around the nursing home independently

If you believe your elderly family member has been neglected in these or other ways, you should contact a caring elder abuse attorney to determine your next steps. You have the right to seek justice for your loved one through the legal system, since no one deserves to be neglected by the people they thought they could trust to take care of them.

In many cases, elderly relatives are unable to communicate that they’ve been neglected in their nursing home. They might have been warned to stay quiet, or they might not even realize the extent of the neglect. It may be up to you and other visitors to identify the warning signs of nursing home abuse or neglect, such as:

Frequent falls
Unexplained injuries
Malnutrition or dehydration
Unsanitary conditions
Rapid weight changes
Fear of nursing home staff
Poor personal hygiene
Personality shifts
Chronic hospital visits
Medication errors
Torn clothing

If you’ve noticed some of these common signs of nursing home abuse or neglect while visiting your family member, reach out to Benton & Benton Law for legal support. We will immediately provide the guidance you need to identify and prove nursing home neglect or abuse. Then we’ll let you know your legal options as you pursue justice for your elderly relative.

What Should You Do If You Suspect Nursing Home Abuse?

If you suspect that your elderly relative has fallen victim to nursing home abuse or neglect, there are a few actions you can take to help them. Your first step should be to report the abuse to the Georgia Department of Community Health, Division of Healthcare Facility Regulation (HFR) so they can investigate your claims.

It may take a few days to hear back from this department, and their investigation can take months. In the meantime, you can also report nursing home abuse to the Georgia Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman so they can conduct an investigation.

Reporting the abuse is an appropriate action to take to help prevent other nursing home residents from enduring the same mistreatment that your family member dealt with, since certain agencies can fine or shut down facilities that allow nursing home abuse. However, these actions won’t make up for the negative effects the abuse likely had on your relative.

After all, nursing home abuse can result in physical and emotional injuries that require expensive medical care and therapy. Victims of this type of abuse should not have to pay for these costs out of pocket, and neither should you. This is why you should talk to a nursing home abuse lawyer to determine if your family should bring a nursing home abuse case against the at-fault party. Doing so can get the financial compensation necessary to pay for your loved one’s expenses stemming from the nursing home abuse or neglect.

In particular, nursing home abuse cases usually pursue financial compensation for the following costs:

Medical expenses, including surgery, medications, wound treatment, and more
The cost of relocating to a different nursing home or alternative housing arrangement
Property damage
Loss of enjoyment of life
Counseling
Funeral and burial expenses
Punitive damages
Mental anguish
Depression
Humiliation

If your loved one would benefit from recovering financial compensation after suffering injuries and other harmful effects, you should talk to a skilled lawyer about filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit. They can tell you what kind of claim it will be and the amount of compensation your family member should expect, which will depend on the losses they suffered.

Nursing home abuse cases are usually personal injury lawsuits that accuse liable parties of negligence or medical malpractice, but they can be classed as wrongful death cases if your loved one passes away due to neglect or abuse. An experienced nursing home abuse lawyer will consider the facts of your case before advising you and your loved one, so call our Monroe office today to get started on the legal process.

Who Can Be Held Liable for Nursing Home Abuse?

Before initiating a nursing home abuse lawsuit to protect your elderly relative, you should learn who you can bring this type of case against to get fair compensation for all losses. First, make sure you understand the difference between nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities.

Skilled nursing facilities, which are synonymous with nursing homes, cater primarily to Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries and offer 24/7 medical care. By contrast, assisted living facilities are for those requiring minimal assistance as they age.

As a result, nursing homes are known for having more skilled medical professionals on staff and being more heavily regulated by state and federal agencies. However, you can bring a nursing home abuse lawsuit against any type of residential facility that houses the elderly, ensuring that anyone responsible for elder abuse is held accountable.

These liable parties can include one or more of the following:

Nurses and other types of caregivers: Whether a nursing home employee is supposed to provide medical treatment or hygiene help for residents, families should be able to expect them to do their job well, not commit elder abuse. If an employee provided inadequate medical care while treating your family member’s medical condition or neglected to assist with their hygiene as needed, you can bring a nursing home abuse lawsuit against them
Managers or administrators: If improper staff training, lack of resources, or neglectful hiring practices led a resident to be abused or neglected, their family could request compensation from the person in charge of hiring and training nursing home employees. Additionally, if someone from the nursing home administration team purposely overcharged or otherwise financially abused a resident, they could be held liable
Other nursing home residents: If your relative was harmed by another resident, a lawsuit could hold that person partially liable. Of course, such nursing home abuse cases would typically also target nursing home employees who failed to notice or stop the abuse from other residents
Nursing home visitors: When facilities fail to monitor the family and friends of residents during their visits, it’s possible for other residents to get hurt. If someone else’s visitor harmed your relative through financial exploitation, sexual assault, or other forms of abuse, they could be held liable for damages
Maintenance workers: Residents and their families have a right to expect nursing homes to be clean and free of hazards. If your relative slipped on a wet floor or tripped over loose carpet, resulting in broken bones or other serious injuries, the maintenance team may be responsible for the injuries

Your nursing home abuse lawyer will examine the details of your case before letting you know who to hold liable for your loved one’s injuries. Note that many personal injury cases hold more than one party liable, maximizing the compensation available to victims.

For example, if poorly trained employees neglected an older person by providing inadequate medical care, they could be sued along with the management team that failed to train them properly. If you’re interested in learning how many parties could be held accountable for your relative’s suffering, contact our personal injury law offices to speak with a skilled nursing home abuse lawyer.

How Can a Monroe Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Help You?

Victims of nursing home abuse deserve justice, and a skilled nursing home abuse lawyer can help them get it by guiding them toward compensation from the at-fault parties. Whether your relative has confided in you about the abuse they’ve suffered or you’ve noticed warning signs in recent months, it’s time to reach out to an experienced Georgia nursing home abuse lawyer who has the legal knowledge necessary to pursue justice.

When you contact Benton & Benton Law for legal guidance, you can speak with a compassionate nursing home abuse lawyer about the nature of the elder abuse your loved one sustained and how you can help them. During your free consultation, our legal team will listen as your elderly family member and any witnesses describe the abusive or neglectful conditions of the facility.

Once we understand what type of elder abuse the victim suffered and who may be responsible for it, we can begin collecting evidence to strengthen the case. The type of evidence we need will depend on the circumstances of the abuse and the type of case we plan to pursue.

For example, if your loved one suffered permanent harm after a medical professional at the facility administered the wrong medication, we will begin collecting medical records to support the personal injury or medical malpractice claim.

On the other hand, if the accusation involves financial exploitation, we’ll look for bank statements, credit card statements, fraudulent checks, and other proof that someone stole from your family member.

After we have the evidence we need for a solid case, we will calculate the compensation to request. This will involve adding up all financial losses, from medical expenses to property damage. We will then determine how much to request for pain and suffering since your loved one deserves to be compensated for the humiliation, depression, or mental anguish they suffered due to verbal attacks, financial exploitation, and other forms of abuse.

It will likely take some negotiating to persuade the at-fault party’s insurance provider to pay the requested compensation, which is why this legal task is best left to a Monroe nursing home negligence lawyer with years of experience proving claims.

Fortunately, our attorneys have an impressive record of securing significant compensation for clients seeking justice, so you can rest assured we will work hard to reach a fair settlement for your elderly family member while they work on recovering from the devastating ordeal.

After spending years fighting for the legal rights of clients across Georgia, our attorneys are equipped with robust negotiation and litigation skills, so we can tackle even the most intricate cases with confidence. But our commitment goes beyond legal skills, as we genuinely care for our clients. We recognize the gravity of entrusting a loved one to a facility, only to feel that trust shattered when there are signs of horrific neglect or abuse.

Don’t let this type of facility get away with harming your family member. Instead, you should pursue justice on behalf of the nursing home abuse victims by reporting the abuse to the appropriate state and federal agencies, and then take immediate action through the legal system by contacting a trusted attorney. If you’re ready to get legal representation for your nursing home abuse case, call Benton & Benton Law at 866-927-4290 for a free consultation with caring, skilled experienced personal injury attorneys.