Arkansas Lawyer Reveals Nursing Home Abuse Resulting In 21 Care Workers Being Charged

Little Rock, AR (Law Firm Newswire) September 19, 2013 – Reports of nursing home abuse are far too frequent these days. Even if such incidents are isolated, there is never any excuse for abusing seniors in care.

“While some people think that nursing home abuse is on the decline, if you read the paper with any degree of regularity, that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said Michael Smith, an Arkansas injury lawyer and Arkansas accident lawyer, practicing personal injury law in Arkansas.

Consider the latest case that made headlines across America; a nursing home facility in the State of Georgia where 21 personal care aides, and the home’s owner, were charged with 70 counts of financial exploitation, physical abuse and neglect. “This case garnered a landslide of media attention, largely because it could happen anywhere, even in Arkansas,” added Smith.

Each day, new facts were published for people to read, and they got more incredibly shocking as each story was revealed. Nursing home residents were hit, doused with water and verbally, physically, sexually, psychologically and emotionally abused. One resident was hit hard enough to sustain a broken nose, another repeatedly whipped with a belt, while yet another was hit in the head with a book and locked in the washroom.

“The horror story did not end there,” Smith outlined. “The nursing home did nothing to protect other patietnts from a violently abusive resident with a history of more than 50 attacks on other seniors in the home.

By the time a complaint was filed with the police and the Alzheimer’s Care of Commerce facility had been raided, police discovered that three seniors needed hospital care. The police complaint was laid by an employee of the nursing home, not involved in the ongoing abuse at the facility.

The Abuse of Residents Is A Major Problem In U.S. Nursing Homes Congressional report, released in 2001, indicated one in three U.S. nursing facilities had been cited for abuse during a period spanning January 1, 1999 to January 1, 2001. There were, in total, 5,283 elder care facilities cited for abusing residents, racking up a shocking total of 9,000 abuse violations. “In 2,500 of those incidents, residents were seriously harmed and stood a chance of dying as a result of such abuse,” Smith stated.

It is abundantly clear that nursing home abuse is more widespread than people wish to consider and it is, whether Americans like it or not, a significant problem. “It’s a problem that needs to stop. We should never turn away from abuse like this. If you need help to deal with nursing home abuse, call me. Together, we will take action,” said Smith.

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