What Is Being Done About Nursing Home Abuse?

The elderly often suffer from nursing home abuse because facilities are short-staffed, staff is untrained or owners are excessively profit-driven and cut corners at the expense of their residents. The New York Times ran an article several years ago about the long-term efforts to get effective legislation passed that deals with elder abuse. The article mentioned that the National Center on Elder Abuse and affiliated partners tried for more than 30 years to get legislation to the Senate floor for greater funds, in an effort to prevent and prosecute elder abuse. Finally, the new health care bill that Congress passed had a provision that appropriated $777 million for state and local protective service programs — the first federal spending to go to handling elder abuse. Under the act, states can use the money to hire 1,700 additional investigators nationwide, for testing adult protective services approaches and for supporting state ombudsmen and training new ombudsmen to investigate long-term care facilities, assisted living and nursing homes where residents or their relatives have filed complaints.

While the government may be stepping up to take greater responsibility for elder abuse, families can also do their part by taking legal action when they observe abusive handling of elders. By consulting a lawyer about nursing home abuse, you can protect your loved one and learn your legal options for holding a nursing home accountable. An experienced nursing home abuse attorney can evaluate your loved one’s situation and advise whether grounds exist to pursue a case.

Our attorneys at Rich & Rich, P.C. focus on bringing justice against negligent parties and helping injury victims receive the compensation they deserve. Call 646.736.3999 to arrange your free consultation and learn how we can help.