Placing a loved one under the care and supervision of a nursing home is no easy decision to make. When you do finally decide to do so, you trust that the nursing home has its residents’ safety and interests at the forefront of its priorities. Unfortunately, some nursing homes employ predatory people who abuse patients. If you suspect that your loved one has sustained sexual abuse at the hands of a nursing home staff member or another resident, you may want to consider hiring an experienced nursing home abuse attorney.
A Chattanooga nursing home sexual abuse lawyer could help you investigate claims of abuse and then help you hold appropriate parties accountable.
How Chattanooga Law Defines Sexual Abuse in Nursing Homes
Family and friends of elderly loved ones in nursing homes may wonder how the state defines sexual abuse. Sexual abuse in a nursing home involves staff members using patients in a sexual way, anything from inappropriate touching of the patient’s genitals or asking the patient to touch the caregiver’s genitals, rape, or exposing a patient’s body for whatever inappropriate reason.
Common examples of sexual abuse could include a mentally incapacitated person being raped by nursing home staff, nursing home residents having their clothes removed, sexual photographs, and patients being forced to perform a sex act on a caregiver.
Staff members are not the only people capable of taking advantage of other patients. Nursing homes are required to monitor the patients and their safety. Therefore, if there is a patient taking advantage of other patients sexually, the home is required to be aware of that, be on the lookout for it, and take measures to prevent it. For more information, contact a compassionate nursing home sexual abuse lawyer in Chattanooga.
Warning Signs of Sexual Abuse in Nursing Homes
Warning signs of sexual abuse are mostly mental, but they present as physical as well. Sexual abuse could leave physical marks on the body, but more frequently the warning signs are a change in the patient’s behavior and in his or her personality. Some common signs in a change in personality are when the patient becomes frightened, fearful, reclusive, and unwilling to engage with other people.
Who is Often Vulnerable to Sexual Abuse?
The types of patients vulnerable to sexual abuse are those who are unable to communicate to tell somebody else what has happened to them. Physically incapacitated patients are often preyed upon because of his or her inability to defend him or herself.
A Nursing Home’s Duty of Care to Its Patients
Nursing homes are required to protect patients from sexual abuse by other patients and from staff members. The latter requires nursing homes to understand who it has hired. Nursing homes have a duty to monitor their staff and make sure any inappropriate behavior is known about and dealt with swiftly and effectively. If a nursing home has failed to uphold its duty, a dedicated Chattanooga nursing home sexual abuse attorney could help a victim seek justice.
Contact a Chattanooga Nursing Home Sexual Abuse Attorney
If you believe your loved one is being sexually abused, you should contact the authorities right away. You may want to consider asking the police to conduct a forensic examination to see if there is physical evidence of sexual abuse. Removing your loved one from that facility may be the next best course of action. For help with holding the negligent parties accountable, contact a Chattanooga nursing home sexual abuse lawyer. Let our team help you recover damages.
