Retaliation Forces Nursing Home Residents To Remain Silent: The Long Term Care Community Coalition’s report issued in June 2023 entitled “They Make You Pay”: How Fear of Retaliation Silences Residents in America’s Nursing Homes” stated: “Fear of retaliation is a pervasive problem that results in emotional, psychological, and physical harm to vulnerable and frail residents. In far too many U.S. nursing homes, retaliation is a tool to scare and muzzle residents. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has been largely overlooked in policy and in academic literature.”
In describing its methodology, the report stated: “The residents’ experiences of fear of retaliation are obtained from 100 standard surveys and complaint investigation reports on nursing homes in 30 U.S. states …In this project, we reviewed an initial pool of 835 Statements of Deficiencies (SODs) from standard surveys and complaint investigations containing variations of the word “retaliation.” From these we identified 100 SODs with sufficient and compelling detail necessary to meet the project’s goals.”
“For several decades, researchers have reported on the phenomenon of staff retaliation against residents in nursing homes. More recently, we have learned that the fear of staff retaliation – the fear itself – is preventing residents from voicing concerns and from receiving the care and services to which they are entitled.”
“A growing body of research indicates that fear of staff retaliation is common in U.S. nursing homes. According to a study by the Atlanta Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, The Silenced Voice Speaks Out, “44% of the residents who had seen abuse of other residents did not report it.” Of those residents, half did not report it due to fear of retaliation.”
“When residents are silenced, the consequences (e.g., emotional/psychological suffering) can be dire. Too often,
resident complaints are delayed or never reported and, thus, not investigated and resolved. Ultimately, this inaction leads to unnecessary suffering for residents and their families.”
“Resident fear of staff retaliation is a pervasive problem that results in emotional, psychological, and physical harm to
vulnerable and frail individuals residing in U.S. nursing homes. Fear of retaliation, moreover, is a barrier for reporting, detecting, and investigating abuse and neglect in nursing homes, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Ombudsman Reporting System.”
If you or a loved one may have been injured (or worse) as a result of nursing home negligence in the United States due to nursing home retaliation, a nursing home infection, nursing home fall, nursing home aspiration, nursing home neglect, nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse, nursing home understaffing, or the nursing home failing to properly care for a vulnerable adult, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer (nursing home lawyer) in your state who may investigate your nursing home medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a nursing home medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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