America’s nursing home population is big – 1.4 million residents – and it’s getting bigger. As the large segment of the population known as Baby Boomers passes age 65, the nation’s 16,100 certified nursing homes will be hard pressed to keep up with added residents.

Among our older citizens, 69 percent will wind up needing some form of long-term care, such as a nursing home. There, the average age of a person entering is 79. Long-term care also includes assisted living facilities, in which 900,000 Americans currently reside. These facilities provide care for elders who need some help on a daily basis, yet also can maintain a high degree of autonomy and independence.

Nursing home abuse stems from staff

In nursing homes, the increase in residents is sure to be accompanied by an increase in already prevalent nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect.

Such abuse and neglect often can be traced to a central problem in nursing homes: shortage of staff. And the staff which exists may be underpaid and undertrained, due to owners and managers who place more emphasis on profits than on the care that they promise.

Elder care is a difficult process, and an overworked staff can vent frustrations against helpless elderly residents. Many nursing home residents have been emotionally abused, violently attacked, raped and even killed by nursing home staff. In fact, hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents could suffer abuse annually, according to the American Geriatric Society.

When such abuse occurs, a nursing home abuse lawyer or a nursing home negligence lawyer from Jim S. Adler & Associates can help. The firm’s lawyers specialize in elder care issues and nursing home litigation and can seek compensation for nursing home residents or their survivors. Legal action also can apply pressure to nursing home facilities to correct their internal problems so that others will not suffer.

Nursing home abuse can be severe

Not all nursing homes are guilty of such things -- an estimated two-thirds take good care of their residents -- and not all nursing home abuse and neglect involves violence. Residents often suffer from bedsores, dehydration, malnutrition or falls due to an inattentive staff, rather than an actively abusive one.

But abuse can involve actively imposed atrocities, such as the crimes committed by Nina Strange of Britain, who was convicted of five charges of ill-treatment by a carer of a person without capacity. She was found guilty not only of hitting residents but of using soiled bath water to clean one woman’s teeth.

Many residents of American nursing homes also must be wary of an estimated 1,600 registered sex offenders who work among them in nursing homes, assisted living homes and long-term care facilities.

Nursing home care is costly

The cost of nursing home care is not cheap: an estimated $213 per day ($77,745 annually) for a private room and $189 per day ($68,985 annually) for a semi-private room. An assisted living facility can cost $35,628 annually.

Yet for all the millions spent on nursing homes, many remain woefully understaffed or staffed by persons who come to their jobs already ingrained with abuse. This can contribute to systemic mistreatment and neglect of residents.

Nursing home abuse lawyer can help

If you or a loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, call 911 or your local police for immediate help, and also contact the National Center on Elder Abuse, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Also be sure to call a Texas or Houston nursing home abuse lawyer or Houston nursing home neglect lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. The firm offers a free case review. Nursing home victims need justice, and Jim S. Adler & Associates can provide it.