The study involved culling information on more than 2,000 nursing home patients. Findings were that more than 400 of them had been involved at least once in some type of abuse involving another resident over the course of the four-week study.

Accounting for 45 percent of those cases were verbal taunts. But physical assaults too made up 26 percent of incidents. Plus, it’s worth noting that verbal taunting can often be a precursor to a physical attack, including a possible sexual assault.

Nursing home staff and administrators have a duty to protect patients from aggression from other patients. Many of these incidents are foreseeable and preventable with proper planning, training, supervision and security. As researchers noted, many of these incidents of interpersonal aggression results from the fact that you have dozens if not hundreds of people living together in close quarters for the first time in decades – perhaps ever. Many of them are suffering from dementia or other diseases that affect cognitive function, which are also marked by behavioral problems. In fact, it is often a behavioral issue that results in a person being placed in the facility in the first place. Many caregivers aren’t equipped to handle such aggression in their homes, so they entrust nursing homes with the responsibility. They trust that there will be enough staffers to not only keep their loved one safe from themselves, but also to prevent harm to others.

Unfortunately, as this study shows, nursing home staff and administrators are failing on this level.

Study authors noted the findings of this research likely understated the problem to a significant degree. The data was based on self-reported information from the patients, and also, where patients had language barriers or health issues that prevented or made participation difficult, family members and legal guardians were interviewed. But of course, that meant not all incidents of abuse would be recorded, even when done so anonymously. Relatives and legal guardians might not always know what goes on behind closed doors and residents may not be fully capable of reporting it.

Plus, researchers were forced to rely in part on reports from staff or other residents in order to verify these incidents.

“It’s possible the abuse is much more prevalent,” the study author noted.

Approximately 3 percent of all reported cases involved some form of sexual abuse by another resident.

Where the abuse involved physical aggression, the most common type of incident involved hitting or pushing. Invasion of privacy was also another common complaint, resulting in 20 percent of all reports. These mostly involved entering one’s room without permission or taking or touching one’s property without asking.

On average, residents in the study were in their mid-80s and two-thirds were women. Approximately 16 percent were living in units designed for patients with dementia.

In cases where nursing home abuse occurs, whether by a staffer or another resident, victims and/ or their families should thoroughly explore their legal options.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

One in five nursing home residents abused by other residents, June 14, 2016, Reuters

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Report: Bus Company Flouts Its Own Driver Fatigue Safety Rules, June 2, 2016, Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

Staffers post these images to various forms of social media, but mostly to Snapchat, a platform in which images are supposed to vanish after a certain period of time. But aside from the fact that such a violation can do damage no matter how long they are posted, the images are not actually impermanent because users can screen-shot and copy them.

ProPublica revealed at least 37 known instances from December 2012 through December 2015. Many more instances likely never came to light. More than half of those documented cases involved Snapchat.

Now, a number of lawmakers are calling for action from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Civil Rights division, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice.

Shortly after the expose was published, Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., sent a request to the Senate Committee on Aging to launch an investigation into this practice, calling it a form of nursing home abuse that demands immediate attention.

Then earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., submitted a request to the federal DHHS office, asking that this agency, which enforces federal health care privacy statutes HIPPA), to acknowledge how many nursing home patient privacy complaints it had received involving social media posts. Further, he asked whether the agency had imposed any civil penalties or criminal case referrals for these complaints and whether it had any intention of issuing guidance to nursing homes on how best to advise staffers on patient interaction with smartphones and social media.

Soon after, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department, requesting information on how aggressive its pursuit has been against cases of nursing home abuse. Specifically, Grassley asked for information on any prosecutions of nursing home staffers who share degrading images of patients online.

Some of the disturbing images at issue involve patients who are partially or completely naked, using the shower, using the bathroom or engaged in conversations that compel them to say demeaning and offensive things.

Because many of these patients suffer from dementia and are elderly, they lack the physical and mental capacity to defend themselves or speak out. Relatives of some victims have been horrified to see their conservative, religious matriarchs and patriarchs using offensive slang and being exposed in such a dehumanizing way.

It is, without question, a form of abuse. The calls for action by the senators are at least a step in the right direction.

Interestingly, the data gleaned by ProPublica did not reveal any cases out of Florida. However, this does not mean our state is immune from it. If it is happening in other states, it has almost certainly occurred here. It may be simply a situation where those involved have not been reported or caught or where publicity around the incident has not gained traction.

If your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse in Fort Lauderdale, our compassionate, knowledgeable injury lawyers can help.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

Senator Asks Privacy Regulators to Stop Abuse of Nursing Home Residents on Social Media, March 8, 2016, By Charles Ornstein, ProPublica

More Blog Entries: Nursing Home Arbitration Agreements: Tossing the Keys to the Courthouse, March 9, 2016, Fort Lauderdale Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog