Sexual abuse itself is criminally defined as unwanted physical touching in an intimate area. The patients most vulnerable to sexual abuse are typically female patients or patients that have severe and marked decline in mental and physical status. If you want to hold the facility or employee accountable for their inappropriate treatment of your loved one, contact a skilled nursing home abuse attorney immediately.
The most common example of sexual abuse in DC nursing homes is when someone who is physically and mentally incapacitated is raped or inappropriately touched by an employee of a nursing home.
There are also rare situations where one resident of the nursing home inappropriately touches another resident where that person either does not consent or is incapable of giving consent.
It is very rare that a nursing home administrator will be aware of sexual misconduct by one resident towards another and choose to do nothing about it. That is why the first and most important step is that they bring it to the attention of the people in charge of the nursing home because that puts the situation on everyone’s radar.
The facility has a different duty of care with respect to residents and staff. For staff members, the facility is required to run background checks in order to determine if there is any reason to suspect that someone is capable or interested in causing sexual abuse to any of the residents.
They must take reasonable steps under the circumstances in order to prevent that. If the facility does not have any reason to suspect that an employee has a tendency to commit sexual abuse in DC nursing homes, there are not really any extra steps they can take to prevent such an act ahead of time.
If the facility fails to run an adequate background check and they hire someone with a history of sexual abuse or sexually abusing patients, then that would be a circumstance where they would be held responsible.
The most obvious warning sign that someone is being sexually abused is physical marks. Next, there may be indications of sexual intimacy. Another warning sign is a significantly altered mental state of the resident. If someone is able to communicate effectively they probably would relay what is going on. If they are unable to effectively communicate, a severely altered mental status would raise suspicion that someone might be the victim of nursing home or sexual abuse.
The options available for a loved one to prevent sexual abuse in DC nursing homes may depend on who they believe has been committing the acts. If they believe it is an employee of the nursing home, they need to call the police. There really is no better solution than that.
Once the situation is brought to the authorities’ attention, then they can do what they need to do in terms of the criminal investigation. There are also other civil options available, however, any time a person is dealing with an intentional physical or intentional sexual act that they do not believe is consensual they need to report it to the authorities.
