Emotional or mental abuse in a nursing home occurs when a resident is emotionally traumatized by another resident or in the most common situation by a staff member. This could be simple as joking around, but it can cause serious harm. Additionally, it is also extremely common in situations where a resident is belittled or make fun of by another resident. This is an extremely common scenario and, unfortunately, can have severe repercussions on the resident and their emotional and mental health.
If your elderly loved one is suffering mental and emotional abuse at their assisted living facility, they need help as soon as possible. A compassionate attorney could help them seek justice. Reach out to a lawyer to learn about emotional and mental abuse in Pascagoula nursing homes.
The types of claims are extremely difficult to prove and extremely difficult to bring. Simply put, there has to be a showing that any types of comments that were made to the resident meet the medical negligence standard for abuse. In a mentally deficient resident who may have dementia or simply confused, then it is going to be a question about who to believe in a situation that’s presented.
The most common example o mental abuse in a nursing home is belittling or a constant barrage of negative speech towards the resident. Working in a nursing home is not an easy job, and the nursing home staff may be going through issues of their own either at work or at home and may take it on that resident. This is especially true if that resident is difficult. Certainly, there are mostly pleasant residents at a nursing home.
However, there can be difficult persons in a nursing home, and this is not uncommon. For example, if a staff is having a bad day and maybe taking it out on a resident. There can be a pattern and practice of emotional and mental abuse by the staff against a resident. This is usually in the form of belittling or making fun of, or even getting angry and being vulgar against a resident.
As with any type of abuse, emotional and mental abuse can have long-lasting effects. This can manifest itself in physical issues as well as the decline of the mental state of the resident but also something that they can carry with them for the rest of their life.
The nursing home can intervene in resident and resident abuse situations and separate those residents that are having problems or restrict access of those residents to each other. In some rare cases, certain residents may have to be removed from a facility. Again, this is not a common practice, but it does happen in certain situations.
Due to the vulnerable state of these patients, nursing homes have a duty to protect their patients from harm and abuse. Nursing homes are required to prevent simple negligence or medical negligence and must be reasonable and diligent in protecting residents from many types of harm.
The management is charged with knowing what is going in their facility. They are not charged with knowing everything that goes on in their facilities, but if systematic issues are going on in the facility, then they are charged with being in a position to know that abuse is taking place.
One-time incidents are usually not enough to create liability except in the most egregious circumstances. One-time abuses in a case of intentional harm or simple negligence that result in the trauma to the patient do create a liability. However, in the case of just simple errors, that is most likely not to create enough liability on the nursing if it is a one-time issue.
When there are systematic issues that arise in the nursing home, then liability is charged to the nursing home and to the management that they have should have known that there was an issue that they needed to correct.
A resident can certainly communicate that they are being abused to the family or friends, and then the family and friends would be responsible for following up with staff and supervisor and ownership of the nursing home to make a report and verify whether some of the issues took place. The warning signs would also manifest themselves and changes in the attitude or emotional state of a resident.
If a nursing home resident or their family member thinks they are being abused, they can always call law enforcement to investigate and create a report. Or you can call the management of the nursing home to investigate and make a report. Additionally, you can call a lawyer and get advice on how to best handle the situation. Speak to an experienced attorney to get more information about emotional and mental abuse in Pascagoula nursing homes.