Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys in Blue Springs, MO

What are the different types of nursing home abuse?

The Missouri Department of Health and Human Services states that abuse is “the infliction of physical, sexual, or emotional injury or harm including financial exploitation by any person, firm, or corporation - and bullying.”

• Physical abuse is usually the easiest type of abuse to spot. Physical abuse involves acts of force that may cause a resident to suffer an injury such as bruises, cuts, swelling, or bleeding. Physical abuse can also include the use of restraints, failure to give a resident his/her medications, failure to feed the resident, causing or not treating bedsores, and any other action that causes physical harm.
• Emotional abuse is a very common type of nursing home abuse. This type of abuse includes verbal and nonverbal conduct designed to make the nursing home resident feel bad. Examples include yelling at a resident, giving the resident the silent treatment, isolating a resident from other residents, threats, and other misconduct.
• Sexual abuse involves any non-consensual sexual conduct between the resident and the caretaker or another resident. Sexual abuse can include rape, assault, sodomy, nudity, sexual photography, and other conduct.

Financial abuse is defined by Missouri law as follows:

A person commits the offense of financial exploitation of an elderly person or a person with a disability if such person knowingly obtains control over the property of the elderly person or person with a disability with the intent to permanently deprive the person of the use, benefit or possession of his or her property thereby benefitting the offender or detrimentally affecting the elderly person or person with a disability by:

• Deceit
• Coercion
• Creating or failing to correct false impressions
• Undue influence
• Many other methods

The Missouri Department of Health states that Missouri law defines neglect as:

The failure to provide services to an eligible adult by any person, firm or corporation with a legal or contractual duty to do so, when such failure presents either an imminent danger to the health, safety, or welfare of the client or a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm would result (192.2400, RSMo).

Examples include not giving the resident his/her meals, not providing medical services, not helping the resident with their hygiene, not providing stable paths for walking, and other neglect.