New Haven Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

More than 200 assisted living facilities operate across Connecticut, providing sufficient space for the elderly to access daily necessities. Unfortunately, abuse in an assisted living facility is a scary reality that affects hundreds of elderly. The people you trust with your loved one often neglect, mistreat, or abuse their rights, making them suffer.

According to federal and state laws, our New Haven nursing home abuse lawyers ensure the rights of the elderly living in nursing homes. Every senior citizen deserves a safe and secure place to spend the rest of their life. We work on a contingency fee basis to ensure that every nursing home resident receives financial compensation for their pain and suffering.

Was your loved one mistreated in a nursing facility? If so, the affiliate Connecticut personal injury attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center, LLC can help. Our skilled lawyers have represented countless victims of nursing home abuse in court, recovering the maximum amount of damages possible.

Contact our New Haven nursing home abuse lawyers today at (800) 926-7565 (toll-free phone number) to access additional information and answers. You can also schedule a free consultation at our New Haven office to evaluate your available legal options. Through a secure attorney-client relationship, we ensure that all your confidential or sensitive information stays private with the law firm.

New Haven Nursing home abuse or elder abuse refers to one-time or continuous acts of negligence in providing the residents with daily life necessities. When this neglect or mistreatment continues over time, it causes severe harm to the elderly, including emotional anguish, pain, or even wrongful death. 

There can be many forms of abuse, such as physical, with apparent signs of bruises and injuries, or emotional, visible from the resident’s changed behavior. The victim typically feels unable to talk safely and becomes socially withdrawn.

Neglect is also considered abuse, which refers to not completing or avoiding residents’ daily needs such as bathing, dressing, grooming, medical, and dietary needs. The common abuse suspects are the nursing home staff members, but doctors or nurses can also neglect your loved one while in their care.

Every assisted care facility in the State of Connecticut is obliged by state and federal laws to maintain health and safety standards regarding their facility. However, when this obligation is, intentionally or unintentionally, not held to the regulations under the law, the nursing home administrator comes under the legal radar.

The two laws to protect the rights of the elderly are:

The law ensures that the assisted care facility provides its residents with the “highest practicable” care, including:

• Nursing
• Rehabilitation
• Social needs
• Routine checkups
• Dietary and medication services are available
• A comprehensive healthcare plan
• Full-time access to a social worker if the nursing home constitutes (circumstances apply)

The primary aim of the Resident’s Bill of Rights was to ensure that the nursing home facility receives Medicare and Medicaid Services to protect the elderly.

According to the Bill, the nursing home residents should have:

• Provide all the necessities with dignity
• Opportunities to practice self-determination
• Privacy
• A caring environment to live in without any mistreatment and neglect
• Live peacefully without physical restraints
• Personal care services (physical, emotional, medical, and social needs)
• Social interaction with others
• Accessible to communication with family members or doctors
• Included in conversations about any changes to their nursing home care plan

Nursing home negligence can come in many forms. It’s crucial to know the most common types to understand the situation of your loved one.

Physical abuse involves any act of negligence or violence against a nursing home resident's physical body.

Types of physical abuse could include any of the following:

• Striking
• Kicking
• Shaking
• Shoving
• Slapping
• Physical restraints
• Force-feeding the patient
• Unnecessary medications

The most common signs of physical abuse are:

• Cuts
• Bruises
• Muscle weakness
• Broken bones
• Abrasions
• Malnutrition
• Dehydration

It refers to adversely affecting the resident’s mental state through humiliation and manipulation.

Some other forms can include:

• Threats
• Harassment
• Isolation
• Neglect
• Intimidation
• Verbal assaults

The signs of psychological abuse are hard to determine.

They include:

• Irritability
• Sudden social withdrawal
• Loss of interest in social engagement or activities
• Sudden mood changes
• Unexplained depressive symptoms

Sexual assault of assisted living facility residents refers to any non-consensual sexual act. It also includes:

• Forced exposure
• Rape
• Forced oral sex
• Groping
• Forced to watch or participate in masturbation
• Sexually explicit videography or photography

Victims of sexual abuse may show these signs:

• Inexplicable sexually-transmitted diseases
• Wounds around the thighs, breasts, and genitals
• Difficulty in walking or sitting
• Social withdrawal
• Excessive fear or anxiety
• Agitation
• Mood changes
• Excessive cleaning of the genitals

Financial abuse is when the assisted living facility's staff members or administrators manipulate the elderly into giving them their bank account details and retrieving them without asking or their victim knowing. However, many staff members have access have residents' financial resources to buy personal items. Regular access at their fingertips makes financial exploitation a prevalent form of mistreatment in an assisted living facility.

Victims of financial abuse may experience:

• Unmonitored bank withdrawals
• Unpaid bills
• Documents related to economic resources forged
• Unusual changes in the will

Regardless of how your loved one is mistreated, sitting by and not doing anything is not the answer. If the situation is not reported, the crime can continue to happen to your loved one or others within the facility. Reporting what you know with any evidence you have to the police or Adult Protective Services is the best way to start the process.

Our legal team of affiliate attornies believes in providing fair legal services to every abused victim living in an assisted living facility to protect them from abuse and neglect. Contact our law firm today to schedule a free consultation.

Mistreatment in a New Haven, Connecticut, assisted living facility is a serious crime. As soon as you suspect mistreatment of your loved one living in a healthcare facility, you need to take these steps:

• Your first claim should be with the nursing home administration. If the facility doesn’t act against the preparator, you must take further steps.
• Discuss the matter with your abused loved one and made detailed notes about the misconduct's time, date, and venue.
• Request an outside physician to visit the patient
• Take photos of your patient’s condition, especially any bruises and abrasions.
• Register a complaint to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
• Contact your nearest police station to file a report
• Hire a professional abuse attorney to discuss the case.
• Save all the documents from the nursing home (e.g., invoices and contracts)
• Try to obtain the name and related information about the witnesses

Hiring an abuse lawyer is essential to fight to receive anything from the damages resulting from mistreatment in your loved one’s nursing home. Nursing home negligence is a specialized personal injury case that needs to be handled by an experienced attorney with a better understanding of quality care and related laws.

Most of the time, the signs and symptoms of abuse are not apparent in a victim and may only sense something is wrong with your family members. An abuse lawyer helps evaluate the situation of your loved one and advises if a case is needed to ensure the due process of law.

Our injury lawyers have all the financial resources to navigate the victim's case through the legal obstacles. In addition, they will help you understand the abuse-related laws regarding your case during your confidential consultation with all our clients.

You need an attorney with significant experience on their plate, sufficient knowledge about abuse laws, and one who considers establishing good attorney-client relationships.

Our lawyers are experienced in all abuse-related practice areas to help your loved one living in an assisted living facility.

The affiliate New Haven attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center, LLC can help you understand your state's complicated abuse laws. Our New Haven office has attorneys experienced in all abuse-related practice areas who know how to handle abuse cases in nursing homes.

Contact our nursing home negligence attorneys at (800) 926-7565 or complete the contact form to schedule your meeting at our law firm today. We offer all our clients a free initial consultation on a contingency fee basis.

Maintaining a goodwill attorney-client relationship is our motto. We listen to you and your family members and help them fight against all personal injury, nursing home neglect, and wrongful death cases.

• American Psychological Association - Senior Citizens Abuse
• Centers For Disease Control and Prevention - Curbing Older Adults Abuse