Nursing homes provide an essential service for our aging loved ones. These homes are meant to provide the care our loved ones need to allow them to live with comfort and dignity. A lot of trust goes into that care, so being abused is particularly hard to deal with. Don’t hesitate to seek justice for abuse and get the compensation you and your loved one are owed. Call the Huntington, WV, nursing home abuse lawyers at Stewart Bell, PLLC, and let’s seek justice together.
Has Your Loved One Suffered Nursing Home Abuse in Huntington?
If your loved one experienced abuse in their nursing home, they deserve justice and compensation. At Stewart Bell, PLLC, we are ready to fight for the rights of your loved one. Schedule a case review with a nursing home abuse lawyer in Huntington today—no upfront costs!
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Getting Help Is Easy
To get the help your loved one needs, all you have to do is call. Our team will review your case absolutely free and take everything from there.
We'll Fight for Justice
Don’t let mistreatment from a nursing home go unchallenged. We’ll help you fight for the compensation your loved one is entitled to.
No Upfront Fees
Our firm works on a contingency fee basis. That means you won’t owe us a penny unless we’ve already won your case. We don’t get paid until you do.
We Know Nursing Home Abuse Is Particularly Difficult
Nursing homes are meant to be a safe place for our loved ones to be taken care of properly. When abuse happens, it’s particularly hard to deal with because it feels like a betrayal. It makes it even worse to know that older people are among the most vulnerable in our society. That’s why it’s essential that you seek justice for any abuse that occurs to a loved one in a nursing home.
With help from us, you’ll stand a much better chance of getting the compensation you deserve. Our team knows exactly how bad abuse can get in a nursing home, sometimes even leading to a wrongful death. Using our combined 120 years of experience, we’ll fight for justice after any kind of mistreatment.
Has Your Loved One Suffered These Types of Abuse?
If a loved one has suffered any of these types of abuse, your family may be entitled to compensation.
This type of abuse stems from residents not being provided with the care they need. Some examples of neglect would include them not being provided a clean room or the food and medicine they need to stay healthy. This is a form of passive abuse that still qualifies because it is a failure of the nursing home staff to provide the services they’re supposed to.
Physical abuse and violence are fairly straightforward. This is the kind of abuse that physically harms residents. This kind of abuse is often recognizable by the appearance of bruises on the resident’s body along with cuts, burns, or any other kind of physical damage.
Not all abuse manifests physically. Abuse can also be psychological. Nursing homes are meant to allow residents to live in comfort with dignity, but being belittled, insulted, and otherwise verbally assaulted violates the entire purpose of the facility as well as the rights of your loved one.
Sexual abuse occurs when nursing home residents are assaulted or harassed in a sexual manner, which is a clear violation of their rights. Violations of privacy expectations can also qualify as sexual abuse in many cases, depending on the context.
This form of abuse is a bit more complicated. Residents of a nursing home often have wills and estate planning efforts set up. A common example of financial abuse involves manipulating residents into changing the beneficiaries of their estate. Common signs of this are sudden changes in will details or a shift in power of attorney.
We’re Ready to Help
At Stewart Bell, PLLC, we’ll always fight for the rights of your loved ones who have been abused. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Why Does Nursing Home Abuse Happen?
Nursing home abuse can happen for a variety of reasons, but the most important thing to remember is that it’s never the fault of your loved one.
Not all abuse happens due to the carelessness of the staff. It can also be the fault of management when they simply don’t have enough staff to provide the proper care to all residents. Remember, failing to provide loved ones with their basic needs is a form of abuse.
Even if the facility has enough staff, that may not be enough if the staff is undertrained. Without proper training, the staff may not be able to effectively provide the care residents are entitled to, and they may not even understand the specific rights of residents that are legally protected.
When nursing home staff members are underpaid, they’re often far less motivated to provide the top-quality care that residents deserve. Without being properly motivated, it’s common for mistreatment to occur. Additionally, underpaid staff may vent their frustrations on the residents, leading to different forms of abuse.
Even if a nursing home is well-staffed with properly trained professionals, caretakers with questionable motives can still slip through. They can abuse residents for a variety of reasons, whether they are feeling burnt out, have a history of abuse themselves, or are suffering from personal health issues.
If you’ve witnessed any of these kinds of practices and suspect abuse as a result, you may have a case for your loved one.
How to Keep Your Loved One Safe
If you suspect that your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse in Huntington, there are some steps you can take to keep that person safe. Your first concern is to get a Huntington, WV, nursing home abuse attorney involved. A lawyer’s duty is to demonstrate the validity of any nursing home abuse case. That typically involves proving three primary points. First, the lawyer must demonstrate that the nursing home had a legal duty to care for the resident. This is typically easy enough to do with a sample of the residential contract. Second, the lawyer must show how the nursing home failed to meet the resident’s needs, which can include the right to not be abused. Finally, the lawyer must show that the failure of the nursing home led to serious injuries and harm.
FAQs
If your loved one is in immediate danger, call 911. Local law enforcement will remove them from any dangerous situations. Additionally, you can notify West Virginia Adult Protective Services, which will investigate your report and provide any services or support according to their findings.
Yes. Nursing home residents are specifically legally protected from any form of abuse and neglect including failure of the staff to provide essential services.
Unfortunately, nursing homes can get away with abuse. This primarily happens because people are unwilling to stand up to them. That’s why it’s essential that you get a lawyer involved who won’t hesitate to pursue justice.
The value of each case will vary depending on the details. Put simply, the value of your case is the amount of damages suffered because of the abuse. That includes costs for medical bills, relocation, and pain and suffering.
When you work with Stewart Bell, PLLC, you won’t have to worry about any attorney fees unless you receive compensation. We work on a contingency fee basis, so we don’t get paid unless you get paid.