Are adults with disabilities suffering from abuse?
Many adults with disabilities in South Carolina are depending on others for their daily living requirements. Some of these adults are receiving care at nursing facilities, and just like any other person at a nursing home, these adults are at risk of being abused or neglected.
According to statistics from the National Center on Elder Abuse, 33 percent of institutionalized women with disabilities reported being the victims of physical abuse. Meanwhile, 22 percent of institutionalized women who didn’t have disabilities reported being abused. As for men, 55 percent of them were abused by someone following their disability. Twelve percent of these men said that their abuse was perpetrated by someone providing personal assistant services.
Nursing home abuse could be physical in nature, it could involve the intentional deprivation of services like bathing and meals, it could involve a patient’s medical needs being ignored or it could take many other forms.
In a lot of cases, disabled adults recover quickly from physical and/or emotional injuries that resulted from their abuse. Nevertheless, these instances are still illegal and those who are harmed by such abuse — whether the injuries were minor or severe — can pursue financial restitution in court through a civil lawsuit.
A skilled South Carolina personal injury lawyer can evaluate the facts and circumstances surrounding a particular elder abuse matter to determine whether a claim to seek financial damages can be made. If successfully navigated, such a claim could bring abuse victims money to pay for their medical care, pain and suffering, emotional trauma and other damages that resulted from the abuse.
Source: National Center on Elder Abuse, “Statistics-Data,” accessed July 20, 2017