Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer, SC

If you have reason to believe your loved one was severely mistreated in a nursing home, you should speak to a nursing home abuse lawyer, SC residents trust. You don’t expect for your family member to suffer abuse in one of these facilities, but it happens more than you’d like to think. A skilled lawyer can help you bring a timely claim against the nursing home and demand justice for your loved one.

Common Types of Nursing Home Abuse

• Physical Abuse: Physical abuse involves using any kind of physical force to cause bodily injuries and physical pain. Different types of physical abuse may include hitting, pushing, shaking, shoving, kicking and pinching. If your loved one has bruises, broken bones, sprains, cuts or other types of physical injuries, he or she may be the victim of physical abuse.
• Emotional Abuse: Emotional abuse refers to verbal and nonverbal acts that cause anguish and distress. These may include insults, threats, intimidation and humiliation. If your family member has become withdrawn or gets irritated very easily, he or she may have experienced emotional abuse in a nursing home.
• Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse is any type of non-consensual sexual contact, including rape, unwanted touching and coerced nudity. Signs of sexual abuse including brusing around the breasts or genital area, unexplained vaginal or anal bleeding, torn or bloody underwear and unexplained sexually transmitted diseases.
• Financial Abuse: A nursing home abuse lawyer in SC often represents nursing home residents who are victims of financial abuse. This type of abuse refers to the illegal use of an elderly person’s funds or assets, such as cashing checks without permission and forging an elderly person’s signature. If there has been significant changes to your loved one’s bank accounts, unexplained disappearance of funds or abrupt changes in a will, your family member may be the victim of financial abuse.
• Neglect: Neglect refers to the failure to provide an elderly person with basic needs, like food, water, medicine, personal hygiene or personal safety. If your family member is malnourished, has poor personal hygiene or is living in unsanitary conditions, neglect has likely taken place.

Reporting Nursing Home Abuse

When you believe an elderly person is being abused in a nursing home, there are several steps you should take. These include:

1. Maintain consistent contact with the elder.
2. Reporting the abuse.
3. Speaking with a nursing home lawyer, SC respects

Reporting the abuse is very important. This involves identifying the method of reporting and then filing a report. There are various hotlines and organizations that can be contacted. In general, the following methods are available to report the abuse of an elder:

If the abuse is not severe, you may want to contact the elder’s family doctor, social worker, or a hospital. 

Visit the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) website and review the state resources page. You’ll find various people who can be contacted for reporting elder abuse in South Carolina (and all other states).

Visit the National Council on Child Abuse and Family Violence (NCCAFV) website. Go to the State Elder Abuse Hotlines page and select your state. You’ll find a list of a number of options available for reporting elder abuse.  

In severe cases of abuse, please call 911 and the police for immediate help. We would recommend removing the elder from the facility and calling a SC nursing home abuse lawyer. 

Detailing the Report

When you report the abuse, you should make sure your report is as detailed as possible. For example, you should say more than “I suspect abuse.” Rather, you might say “I noticed my elderly father had bruise marks on his wrists and arms. He is very withdrawn and refuses to talk to anyone. The caregiver won’t ever leave me alone with him.” The more details, the better. If you have photos or recordings, these should be noted in the report.

Concerns after Reporting the Nursing Home Abuse

Reporting abuse is a very delicate matter. You know you need to help, but you might feel concerned about what will happen after. Perhaps you fear that he or she will have to move to a new facility; maybe that one will be worth it. What if the staff retaliate? These are common, and understandable concerns, that can be addressed during a consultation with a SC nursing home abuse lawyer. 

If you do move the elder, we would recommend taking him or her on a few tours of local facilities. Take time to talk with the doctors, patients, staff, and view the rooms. Let your elderly loved one know you want what is best and are ready to listen to their thoughts and ideas. However, their safety remains the number one priority. 

Legally, nursing home staff cannot retaliate. This does not mean they won’t. If you have genuine concerns about retaliation, or notice things that are already taking place, a lawyer might advise you to find a new facility as soon as possible. Furthermore, he or she might consider filing an additional complaint or taking legal action in relation to retaliation. 

Consulting a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Finding out that your loved one may be the victim of a nursing home is shocking to say the least. Your next step is to schedule a consultation with a qualified nursing home abuse lawyer to discuss your legal options. A lawyer can help you file a timely lawsuit against the nursing home, gather evidence, identify key witnesses, and negotiate with the insurance company. If you have a skilled lawyer on your side, you have a better chance of obtaining fair compensation.

Unfortunately, a nursing home abuse lawyer SC families trust from Poliakoff & Associates, P.A. is well aware of just how common nursing home mistreatment is. Adult care facilities often face chronic understaffing, where care providers are burnt-out, over-worked, and spread thin. Statistically, around one in every four nursing homes in the United States has some kind of deficiency that results in harm to the residents or makes them vulnerable to serious injury or death.

As a family member of someone in a nursing home, this statistic may scare you. We aren’t here to cause unnecessary panic, however, it is important to be informed about this prevalence so victims can get justice if they are abused in a nursing home. Family members can play a crucial role in keeping the senior relative safe. But since you cannot be there at all times, there will still be moments where your relative could be at risk for mistreatment. 

How Facilities Fail To Keep Residents Safe

The elder care facilities that we entrust to care for our loved ones may break this trust through harming the patient in some way. Abuse can take many forms, and may be physical, emotional, financial, and/or sexual. As the family member or compassionate friend of a nursing home resident, you must be aware of the ways elder abuse can take form, and what the warning signs look like. In this way, you can take action quickly if you do see that something just isn’t right. As your South Carolina nursing home abuse lawyer may go over with you, these are just a few common signs that may mean abuse is happening:

• Depression
• Low self-esteem
• Bed or pressure sores
• Malnutrition and dehydration
• Poor hygiene
• Bruises and cuts that cannot be explained
• Mood outbursts
• Bone fractures
• Head/brain injury
• Personality changes
• Appearing disoriented or confused
• Sudden changes to financial records or bank statements

What To Look For When Visiting

When visiting your loved one in the nursing home, there are things to watch out for to ensure their safety. For instance, do you notice that the living quarters are dirty and unkempt? Has your relative’s condition consistently decreased since entering the facility? Has your loved one retreated from family and friends? Have they refused to be helped by certain staff members? A lack of supervision and properly trained staff can result in incidents of abuse. Sadly, many well-intentioned nurses or care providers go into the field with a genuine want to help, but then get burnt-out and may act in ways that they wouldn’t have if the working environment was better. 

Call Poliakoff & Associates, P.A. Today

Our team is ready to talk with you about your case. If you aren’t sure whether abuse has actually happened, we can investigate further. The best thing you can do right now is to call us so we can intervene to protect your senior loved one. Call Poliakoff & Assocites, P.A. today to speak with a nursing home abuse lawyer in South Carolina as soon as possible.

Schedule a free consultation with a nursing home abuse lawyer in SC from the Poliakoff & Associates, P. A. today.