The discovery of your loved one being abused by either staff or other residents at a nursing home may come as a horrible shock. But when this happens, your next steps could be critical in getting the care and compensation your loved one needs. An experienced nursing home abuse attorney could help you do just that.
A Chattanooga nursing home emotional abuse lawyer could help you hold negligent or abusive staff accountable for its actions. Call our team today to set up a consultation with our compassionate team of legal professionals.
How Emotional or Mental Abuse is Defined
Emotional or mental abuse in nursing home situations comes from what caregivers say to residents and how the staff treats the residents. That could come in the form of verbal abuse, isolating the residents, or treating the patients in a way that makes them feel ashamed, humiliated, hated, or punished. Nursing homes have a duty to refrain from conducting in emotional and mental abuse behavior.
Mental and emotional abuse can severely harm one’s quality of life. It is tough for victims to recover from abuse as well. After suffering from emotional abuse, a victim’s ability to enjoy life decreases drastically. Even when he or she is removed from the abusive situation, the feelings of humiliation or hatred tend to linger. For more information, consult with a Chattanooga nursing home emotional abuse attorney.
Warning Signs that a Loved One is Being Abused
Warning signs for emotional abuse are often that a nursing home resident will likely be afraid of the abuser. If the abuser comes near, the resident could possibly change his or her behavior, become more anxious, or may become quieter and refuse to interact. Sometimes, victims withdraw and become less interactive or less engaging in general.
Patients who are unable to communicate and understand what people are saying are particularly vulnerable to mental or emotional abuse. Family of victims should be vigilant if they suspect that their loved ones are suffering from an emotional abuser. When one suspects his or her loved one is being emotionally abused, the individual should contact a seasoned lawyer.
Common Examples of Emotional or Mental Abuse in Nursing Homes
Common examples of emotional or mental abuse are inappropriate and offensive language, belittling of victims, humiliating him or her, or making him or her wear certain clothes. Isolation is also unfortunately common. The nursing home staff may put a patient in a room where he or she is prevented from contacting anyone.
Possible Abuse from Other Residents
A nursing home has to pay attention and protect its residents even from mistreatment by other patients. The facility is required to monitor its patients and to know if one patient is being abusive, even if it is just verbal, to another patient. If there is verbal or any other type of abuse, the home must address it and protect other patients from the abusive patient. Failure to do so could result in a nursing home being found negligent in its standard of care owed to residents.
How Negligence Changes When Management is Unaware of Abuse
A corporation such as a nursing home is responsible for knowing everything that its employees know about its business. If any employee of the nursing home is aware of abuse, the nursing home is considered to be aware of abuse. Consequentially, the fact that the abuse was not reported to management does not absolve the home of its liability or responsibility. If no employee knows about the abuse, then the question becomes, should an employee have known about the abuse and if employees should have known, the home has no defense that it did not know about the abuse. A dedicated nursing home emotional abuse lawyer in Chattanooga could help establish negligence.
Reach out to a Chattanooga Nursing Home Emotional Abuse Attorney
To bring an action for mental abuse in a nursing home, potential claimants must contact an attorney and should gather evidence that proves what the mental abuse was and who inflicted it, how long it went on, and what were the effects on the patient. An experienced attorney could help with this process.
The trust you place in a nursing home to care for your loved ones should never break that trust and abuse, or allow for the abuse of its residents. If you suspect that your loved one has suffered because of staff or residents, a Chattanooga nursing home emotional abuse lawyer could help you hold a nursing home accountable. Reach out today.
