Cape Girardeau Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Abusive Treatment That Occurs in Cape Girardeau Nursing Homes

There’s no one single type of mistreatment that individuals residing in assisted living facilities in Cape Girardeau face, but instead, a wide range of behaviors that put those individuals’ lives at risk, including:

• Emotional abuse: This category is a catch-all for any type of mistreatment that may potentially have an adverse psychological impact on the person targeted. Thus, isolation, making condescending comments, or using one’s words to verbally attack someone can all be examples of this.
• Physical abuse: This is often the most commonly associated type of treatment individuals associate with abuse. Some examples of this may include pinching, shoving, restraining, or slapping a vulnerable individual.
• Financial exploitation: While this may not be a situation someone readily associates with abuse, it is. Preying upon the vulnerabilities of Cape Girardeau nursing home residents, especially to gain access to their personal identifying information and assets, including money, may be considered financially exploitative.
• Sexual abuse: This type of treatment often occurs in nursing homes for much the same reasons financial exploitation does—because perpetrators have easy access to individuals residing in these long-term care facilities, and those residents may have limited abilities to fight back. Inappropriate touching and making sexually suggestive comments are examples of this type of nursing home abuse.
• Neglect: Any deprivation of nursing home residents’ needs may be classified as neglect. Thus, ignoring their calls for assistance in getting up and moving about their rooms, failing to provide adequate water or nutritious food, and not ensuring residents have clean bed linens and have other hygienic needs taken care of are all examples of neglectful behavior that occurs in nursing homes in our part of Missouri.

Are you concerned that your loved one is being mistreated, but you’re having difficulty pinpointing exactly how? Consider speaking with a Cape Girardeau nursing home abuse lawyer in our office to try to sort out what exactly may have happened.

Warning Signs of Nursing Home Abuse

While there are some variances in the way someone may act if they’re being subjected to nursing home abuse or neglect, there are some similarities, too. Factors to be on the lookout for that may indicate that your close family member is being mistreated include:

• A newly diagnosed condition, such as an anxiety disorder or depression, a sexually transmitted disease, or high blood pressure
• Moodiness, especially being quick to anger
• Reports of a lack of visitors
• Missing valuable objects from their room
• Sudden weight loss
• Dehydration
• The appearance of bedsores
• Funds missing from banking accounts
• Loss of appetite
• Unexplained physical injuries, including burns, broken bones, restraint marks around the wrists or ankles, bruises, or cuts
• Changes to beneficiaries on insurance policies or wills

What To Do If You Suspect Someone Is Abusing a Family Member

Your initial inclination may be to question your loved one about their treatment and who did what happened to them and then confront that individual. Doing that may result in you being unable to preserve any necessary evidence necessary to build a civil case against them down the road, though.

That being said, you don’t want to just let ongoing abuse continue to occur that could cause a further deterioration in your relative’s health or cause their preventable death. So, if you’re at all concerned about this, be sure to call the proper authorities to report what happened, which may include:

• The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services hotline for abused, neglected, and exploited elderly and disabled individuals at 1-800-392-0210
• The police

Whether you make contact with one of the agencies above or not, you should also consult with a Cape Girardeau nursing home abuse lawyer to understand the legal options available to ensure accountability and minimize the replicability of such treatment. Initial meetings like these with injury lawyers in our office are complimentary and are key in helping us pinpoint why abuse or neglect happened and who carried it out.

Why Abuse Occurs in Long-Term Care Facilities

Much like there’s not just one factor to be on the lookout for that may indicate that your loved one is being abused, there isn’t a single reason why this abuse occurs either. Some of the reasons it happens include:

• Poor hiring practices: This may include failing to properly screen staff members, including performing background checks on them or verifying their work history.
• Understaffing: Nursing homes are for-profit businesses that will often schedule fewer staff members to work than is necessary to take care of all residents’ needs.
• Inadequate supervision: While this may easily be tied to not having enough workers assigned to a given shift at any one time, not properly monitoring staff members and their actions closely enough can be an issue, even when there are enough workers on the schedule at any one time.
• Inefficient training practices: While not making sure workers have an initial baseline of necessary expertise can be a problem, not requiring employees to regularly update their knowledge can put residents at risk of suffering harm.
• Negligent security: From inadequate screening of visitors to not implementing policies and procedures to keep residents safe from one another, there are many situations like these that may lead to residents unnecessarily being put in harm’s way.

Responsible Parties for Nursing Home Abuse

While you may initially assume that only staff members inflict harm upon or are neglectful of the needs of residents, that’s not the case. The following individuals or institutions they’re affiliated with may all play a role in a resident unnecessarily getting hurt or developing a preventable health condition:

• Direct caregivers like licensed practical nurses (LPNs)
• Facility administrators
• Nutritional aides
• Fellow residents
• Activities coordinators
• Facility maintenance personnel
• Third-party medical providers, like physicians or occupational therapists
• Family members of other residents

Are you convinced your loved one has been abused or neglected in their assisted living facility in Southern Missouri but unsure who is responsible for what happened? Our experienced legal team at Prince Law Firm can help you make such a determination. Consultations with our legal team are free, so let us connect you with a nursing home abuse attorney in Cape Girardeau in our office today.

What To Expect From a Cape Girardeau Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

When considering who to reach out to when you discover abuse or neglect of your loved one, the question of “What can an attorney do for me?” may arise.

A nursing home abuse lawyer can be expected to understand not only Missouri laws aimed at protecting residents’ rights but also what constitutes violations of those statutes and the legal remedies victims can pursue when those breaches occur.

Oftentimes, abuse victims are entitled to file a civil lawsuit against the person who harmed them, but they must prove certain elements of negligence and take legal action within a small window of time. Nursing home abuse attorneys in Cape Girardeau like ours will know how to prove a case like this and make sure it gets filed within the appropriate statute of limitations.

Prince Law Firm Will Fight for Your Family

The motivation behind our founding attorney, Mark Prince, settling on personal injury law as the focus of his practice was to be a strong advocate for those who had a small voice when going up against big-name defendants and their insurers. This often exemplifies what it’s like when a nursing home abuse victim attempts to hold the facility where they live, its staff, and others accountable for their unlawful actions.

Our goal in advocating for you is to help you successfully navigate the legal system so you can secure compensation to not only cover the damages you’ve sustained but also send a message that such future treatment won’t be tolerated ever again.

Let us help you, and anyone else abusers may think of mistreating. Give us a call or contact us online to discuss what happened to you and your loved one and any rights you have with a Cape Girardeau nursing home abuse lawyer. Consultations are free.