Common Arguments in Connecticut Elderly Abuse Cases

Homes accused of neglect or abuse might attempt to disprove your loved one’s claims. The home’s defense council will try to take the focus off of them and the abuse and neglect that they committed. There are many defenses that they can make against your claims. But, not all the things they say are necessarily true. Here, learn about the most common forms of defenses against your loved one’s case.

Staffing Issues

Nursing homes and home health aides cannot provide round-the-clock help. But, you expect that they will receive enough care that no harm will come to them. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Nursing homes are commonly understaffed and overbooked. Regardless, they are still obligated to provide proper care. Different residents will have different needs and some might not need as much care as others.
One common argument these places will make is that they can’t provide 24-hour care. This is true, but they can take the proper precautions in ensuring that their residents are safe. For instance, let’s say a resident routinely falls while getting out of bed in the morning. The home should have an employee there in the morning hours to prevent another fall.
Another word nursing homes will say a lot is that a certain event was “unavoidable.” They can’t say something was unavoidable unless every step was taken to ensure safety. Nursing homes can’t deem something unavoidable the cause of the incident was neglect.

Contracts

Another common argument nursing homes make is that the resident was sick when they came to the home. They argue that death or injury was inevitable. The truth is that in most cases, if proper care was taken, death or injury could have been prevented. Normally, admitting a loved one into a nursing home means that you must sign a contract. This contract is an agreement that the home will care for your loved one. The agreement says they will do everything they can to help your loved one and maintain their health.
In general, nursing home employees are encouraged not to give up on the residents. A lot of the time, but, employees do in fact give up and neglect and abuse is the outcome. Overmedicating, under medicating, medical errors, etc. might be neglect or abuse. Bedsores may be the result of neglect in a nursing home. Bedsores provide clear evidence that the employee was not taking proper care. Workers are instructed to move and alter resident’s positions to avoid bedsores from occurring. In some cases, employees will say that the resident was on a blood thinner or some other type of medication. They will use this as a reason for the many obvious bruises.
Arguments like these are defenses that your loved one might face. If important steps were not taken in caring for a resident, then the nursing home is to blame. To counter these arguments, you may prove your case. Do so with pictures, witnesses, diaries or journals, and your personal account.