Mississippi Nursing Home Neglect & Abuse Attorneys

Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers–Serving Mississippi Over 75 Years

As the Baby Boomers move into retirement age, elder care facilities like Mississippi nursing homes are likely be overwhelmed as they try to stretch limited resources to provide appropriate care for our nation’s seniors.  Nursing homes and similar elder care facilities in Mississippi and throughout the United States currently house approximately 1.5 million seniors.  The leading cause of nursing home abuse or neglect is understaffing and insufficient resources devoted to resident care.  Many within our law firm face the same troubling choices as our clients when it comes to protecting our elderly family members from abuse in nursing homes throughout Mississippi.

While it may be comforting to presume that the contemptible behavior of abusing seniors physically, emotionally or financially is an extremely uncommon event, there is an overwhelming amount of data that suggests exactly the opposite:

• • Almost a third of all nursing home staff members admit they have witnessed a recent act of physical abuse.
  • More than 75 percent of nursing home staff indicate witnessing some form of abuse of elderly residents.
  • Nearly fifty percent of those in nursing homes suffer some form of abuse.

These startling statistics indicate the rampant impact of nursing home neglect and abuse, which results in the victimization of many senior nursing home residents.  Some nursing home residents may have physical limitations or cognitive limitations due to advanced age related conditions, such as Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia.  These types of conditions may make elderly nursing home residents more vulnerable to victimization by unscrupulous nursing home staff members because they may not be able to identify, repel, or report abuse.  There are many types of nursing home abuse and neglect that may affect senior residents, such as:

Physical Abuse of Elderly Residents: Physical abuse of elderly nursing home residents involves the intentional use of force or violence.  Physical abuse of seniors can take many forms, including unnecessary physical or chemical restraint (i.e. use of drugs), physical assault or battery, and sexual assaults.

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Sexual abuse of senior residents in Mississippi nursing homes may consist of rape, inappropriate touching, forced viewing of pornographic material, and other forms of sexual exploitation.  While sexual abuse and exploitation of the elderly is a variety of physical abuse, it can be particularly insidious because there may be no outward physical signs.

Nursing Home Neglect: While the forms of mistreatment of seniors above involve intentional misconduct, the most common form of poor treatment of the elderly is neglect.  Nursing home neglect in Mississippi is often the result of nursing care facilities devoting insufficient resources to equipping the facility with staff members that are adequately paid, trained or supervised.  These issues are compounded when there is a poor ratio of staff members to residents.  Senior neglect may involve malnutrition, dehydration, lack of hygiene opportunities, and improper medication.

Financial Exploitation: The staff or management of a nursing home may be able to gain access to the assets, bank accounts, and financial resources of elderly nursing home residents.  Financial exploitation of elderly nursing home residents in Mississippi can rob seniors of their life savings.  Some of the most common examples of financial abuse of elderly nursing home residents include raiding bank accounts, misuse of credit cards and billing patients for drugs and medical services not actually provided.

If your elderly family member has been the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse in a Mississippi nursing home, our Mississippi personal injury attorneys have provided effective legal representation and zealous advocacy on behalf of seniors for over 75 years.   Our dedicated nursing home abuse lawyers at Barrett Law, PLLC offer compassionate representation and zealous advocacy so contact us immediately at (601) 790-1505 to learn how we can help.