Statistics on Nursing Home Abuse

Some statistics put out by the National Council on Elder Abuse are eye-opening:

•Two out of three nursing home residents are female.

•Over 50 percent of nursing home staff admitted to mistreating (physical violence, mental abuse, neglect, and so on) older patients within the prior year in one study. Two-thirds of those incidents involved neglect.

•One study interviewed 2,000 nursing home residents and discovered that 44 percent said they had been abused; an astounding 95 percent reported having been neglected or had seen another resident neglected.

•One survey of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) found that 17 percent of them had pushed, grabbed, or shoved a nursing home resident; 51 percent reported they had yelled at a resident, and 23 percent had insulted or sworn at a resident.

•Nearly one in three nursing homes was cited for violations of federal standards that had potential to cause harm or that had caused actual harm to a resident during the two years 1999–2001.

•Nearly one out of ten homes had violations that caused residents harm, serious injury, or placed them in jeopardy of death.

You can easily imagine that a good number of nursing home residents would be reluctant to report abuse of any type–psychological, physical, and so on—because they have to live with their abusers daily while guests, administrators, and so on

come and go. They may feel they just have to grin and bear it, or they could be living in fear of more or worse abuse if they complain. In addition, they may be afraid that complaining might lead to another form of abuse—neglect. They may also be suffering from mental impairment and not realize they’re victims of abuse in the many forms it can take.

This is all to say that the statistics above may be the result of underreporting and that the prevalence of abuse is higher, perhaps much higher.

Eric J. Hertz, PC
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers