When your loved one enters a nursing home, you expect the facility and its staff to care for them with dignity and respect. One of the very last things that should happen at a nursing home is sexual abuse. Yet, sexual assault and other types of physical assaults against residents is surprisingly prevalent in facilities throughout the United States. Abuse and assault against a nursing home resident can be by nursing home staff, or by another resident.
It can be difficult to accurately measure just how frequently sexual abuse occurs in nursing homes. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) identified over 20,000 sexual abuse complaints made by nursing home residents over a 20-year period. However, many instances of sexual abuse likely go unnoticed. This is most prevalent among patients, especially women, with dementia or some other condition that prevents them from recounting events and communicating abuse to family members.
All nursing home residents have the legal right to be free from abuse of all kinds, including emotional, mental, and physical abuse. Sexual abuse violates that right on multiple fronts. Nursing homes must also take action to prevent sexual abuse and are required to investigate, document, and report claims of abuse.
Prosecuting nursing homes for negligently enabling sexual abuse is difficult, mainly because of state laws that typically work in the favor of nursing home corporations. I have been practicing law for over 20 years and I’ve spent that time focusing on elder abuse and nursing home negligence in North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. My experience has shown me what it takes to successfully pursue lawsuits against nursing homes, no matter how large or wealthy their ownership may be. I accept a limited number of cases so that I can do my due diligence for every client, and I only accept cases that I’m willing to take to jury trial and verdict.
While most states require nursing homes to screen potential staff and dismiss anyone with a history of assaulting, neglecting, or abusing patients, some states do not require nursing homes to perform exhaustive background checks on staff. This means abusers can slip through the cracks. Some nursing homes ignore the violent histories of other residents and fail to protect other residents from assault and injury.
Staff members who have unconfirmed sexual abuse complaints filed against them are not prohibited from working at nursing home facilities. In fact, a CNN investigation found that nursing homes often delayed sexual assault investigations and police frequently dismissed claims made by nursing home residents and their families. This sort of extreme negligence is precisely what empowers sexual assault perpetrators to repeatedly abuse nursing home victims.
Of course, there is no one profile for sexual abusers of nursing home patients. Doctors, staff, visitors, volunteers, and fellow residents all have the potential to sexually assault vulnerable patients.
Furthermore, sexual abuse in nursing homes does not take one form. It can include rape, inappropriate touching, sexual advances, sexual harassment, sexual battery, forced nudity, or inappropriate photography. It can also happen once or repeatedly. That’s why it is so important for family members to be diligent about checking on their loved ones and looking for signs of sexual abuse at every visit.
Signs of sexual abuse may include the following:
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