Nursing Home Residents Face Threats from Fellow Residents, Too

The phrase “nursing home abuse” is commonly understood to refer to the mistreatment of elderly residents by a facility’s staff and personnel. According to a new study by the Center for Aging Research and Clinical Care, nursing home residents often suffer abuse at the hands of other residents, too.

The study revealed that about one in five nursing home residents have experienced verbal or physical mistreatment by other residents. Such “mistreatment” can take many different forms. Similar to other forms of mistreatment, it includes any behavior that is unwelcome and that could potentially cause the victim to suffer physical or psychological distress. This type of conduct ranges from name-calling to taking food off of a fellow resident's plate, stealing the belongings of another resident, bumping a wheelchair or other object into a resident, interfering with medical treatment, physical altercations, as well as verbal abuse and sexual assault. The study found that seventy-five percent of these incidents are verbal in nature, and twenty-five percent are physical.

The key takeaway of this study is that residents and their families must be aware of the potential for resident-on-resident abuse and watch for signs that it may be occurring. They must also pay particular attention to how their respective facilities are working to address the potential for (or the existence of) this type of abuse. Given the extent of the problem, it is clear that facilities' obligations to their residents go beyond simply providing the required care and treatment for their elderly residents. Rather, it is imperative that they remain engaged with their residents at all times. By focusing on their residents' interactions, facilities will be better able to spot and properly respond to a resident's mistreatment of another.