Cherry Hill Emotional and Mental Abuse Lawyer

Emotional and mental abuse in nursing home situations can take many forms. Sometimes, clients or a client’s loved ones are physically abused, which then evolves and results in emotional and mental anguish. It often comes hand in hand.

There are other incidents where there may not have been physical abuse involved, but an individual was being yelled at, put down by staff, or being made to feel like lesser of a human being for no reason at all. The elderly are a vulnerable population, and these nurses and nursing homes that people are putting trust into to take care of their loved one sometimes are not doing so.

If you believe your loved one may be suffering from nursing home emotional abuse in Cherry Hill, it is imperative that you consult with a Cherry Hill emotional and mental abuse lawyer as soon as possible. An experienced attorney in Cherry Hill can gather the elements of your case to build a claim and help produce a successful result on your behalf.

Bringing Forward an Abuse Claim

When deciding to bring forward a claim, a person will want to hire an experienced Cherry Hill emotional and mental abuse lawyer to take a look at the case. Whatever an individual is bringing forward against a nursing home or rehabilitation facility, they will need to have experts who review the medical records and tell the attorney and the court about what exactly the nursing home did wrong and how their actions deviated from the standard of care.

Facility’s Duty to Protect

Nursing home facilities have an absolute responsibility to protect residents and patients from abusive behavior, be it from staff or other residents. When people put loved ones into a nursing home, they are, in essence, signing a contract that they are going to take care of these people to the best of their abilities. That means that they have to prevent  Cherry Hill nursing home mental and emotional abuse from occurring. Whether it is residents, whether it is staff, whoever is doing this type of abuse needs to be corrected. There is a standard of care that applies to every nursing home and these nursing home staff need to abide by that standard of care to prevent this type of abuse from occurring.

Does the Nursing Home’s Response Differ When the Source of Abuse is a Resident?

Every case is unique but just by the nature of the Cherry Hill nursing home mental and emotional abuse, and whether it is a staff member or resident, it is going to differ. If it is a staff member, those staff members should be fired immediately. If they are physically, mentally, or emotionally abusing a resident, there is no reason that that staff member should remain at that facility.

If it is a resident, it may be a little bit more difficult for them to just get rid of that particular resident. The nursing home could attempt to provide security or put measures in place so that does not happen again.

Steps to Take if Someone is Being Abused

There are several things someone can do if someone they know is being abused at a nursing home. First of all, if a family member suspects abuse, they can report the nursing home to the state of New Jersey. There is a hotline that they can call for them to be investigated.

Then, they can also hire a nursing home attorney to request all of the medical records from the facility and get them out to an expert to look at what could have been done differently to prevent this situation from happening.

If it is determined that the nursing home was negligent in how they either prevented this or responded to it, then there could be a nursing home claim against them for damages and those damages can be compensatory, meaning for the pain and the suffering of the individual, and they can also could be punitive in nature to actually punish the nursing home if it is determined that they acted grossly negligent or with complete reckless disregard to their residents. If you suspect that a family member is a victim of nursing home emotional abuse in Cherry Hill, contact a lawyer who can advocate for them and fight for a positive outcome.