When people hear about violence in a nursing home, the image they form in their minds is usually one where the staff of a nursing home assaults one of the residents of the home. That is the most common kind of nursing home abuse.
There’s growing evidence indicating that another kind of nursing home abuse might be dramatically under reported – resident on resident assaults and abuse. A recent investigation indicated that there might be thousands of unreported nursing home assaults being carried out by fellow residents.
Few people outside the nursing home field are aware of how much of an effect that mental illness has had on the nursing home industry. One thing that all nursing home residents have in common is that they are all incapable of living safely on their own or with the assistance of their families.
The reason for that incapacity varies greatly. More and more, nursing home residents are being admitted because of mental illness rather than physical frailty.
Ever since the tragedy that took place in Newtown, Connecticut, there has been a renewed focus on providing services to the mentally ill. The consensus is that funding for treatment of the mentally ill have been dramatically cut. One of the many places where that deficit in funding has been felt is in the nursing home industry.
In order to qualify for funding as a nursing home, a facility only needs to have 50% of their residents be older than 65. The other half of the residents can be any age, and often include physically healthy but mentally ill residents.
Earlier this month, a bed-ridden man was beaten to death in a Florida nursing home. The suspect in the assault is his roommate, a 41-year old man who was found with injuries to his hands. The suspect was convicted of assault twice since 2006.
In Peoria, Illinois, a 44-year old woman was run down by a 53-year old man in a wheelchair. Witnesses told police that the man directed at her “with purpose and intention.”
Nursing homes have an obligation to protect the residents in their care. If you have a loved one who has been injured in an Illinois nursing home, and you feel they may have been the victims or resident violence, contact our Chicago nursing home lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.