There are many concerns that go along with putting a loved one in a nursing home. An article from the New York Times brings to light major concern that could be happening to your loved one.

A recent study conducted by Dr. Pillemer has reported information that nursing home abuse, including verbal, physical and sexual, may be caused by other residents in the nursing home facility. A shocking statistic states one in five residents has experienced a problem in the previous month with another resident at a nursing home facility.

This research was done through 2000 interviews with residents in New York state nursing homes while also spending two to six months observing these facilities. Dr Pillemer’s study has reported that “16 percent had experienced incidents of verbal mistreatment within the previous month. Nearly 6 percent were involved in physical and 1.3 percent in sexual mistreatment.” There could be more incidents that unfortunately go unreported. As mentioned in the article, many of these nursing home victims are disabled in some form or are fearful of reporting the incident. Additionally, staff is reluctant to report resident conflicts in fear of being in trouble. These factors could prevent conflicts from  being resolved and allow abuse to continue.

Dr. Pillemer hopes that many of these incidents can be prevented by “hiring more staff members, training them to reduce residents conflict, treating residents’s depression, designing facilities that minimize congestion and provide private rooms.” Dr. Pilleman also mentions that these changes could help resident conflicts but more in general the overall quality of nursing homes as well.

Something to take from this information is when a loved one is in a nursing home facility, it is important to look at every aspect. In researching or evaluating  a nursing home, even the other residents of the facility are an important aspect to consider. While your loved one might be at a nursing home for care, its also critical that they adjust socially as well in order to avoid conflicts and receive the best care they possibly can.

Attorney Sean McDonough has been a partner of Dougherty, Leventhal and Price for over twenty years. He practices in personal injury cases with an emphasis on nursing home abuse. If you suspect nursing home abuse, don’t wait until its too late. Call DLP and make an appointment with Attorney Sean McDonough today!

The information from the blog post can be found from the following link: