Caring for an ailing senior at home is not always on option for the typical family, who may have minor children to care for as well as a parent or relative who has a myriad of physical or mental diagnoses. The last thing you want to do, however, is to place him or her in a residential facility and worry about their safety or quality of care. Unfortunately, many of the dangers associated with modern nursing homes are unavoidable consequences of the communal living arrangement. Seniors often have to worry about getting along with roommates and other residents in the facility.

Consequences Of Resident-To-Resident Abuse

Of the approximately 65 million adults in some kind of residential care facility, roughly ten percent are experiencing senior abuse in one form or another. While caregivers, nurses and family acquaintances are often the people held responsible for senior abuse; about one in every five residents of a nursing home who are abused attribute the abuse to another resident or a roommate.

Resident-to-Resident Elder Mistreatment (R-REM) has been a troubling problem in nursing homes and other residential care facilities for decades but is only recently receiving the attention necessary to bring about change. A study published in June 2016 by Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that more than 9% of those who participated in the study reported experiencing verbal abuse from another resident, while 5.2% reported physical abuse.

Resident-on-resident abuse leads to a wide range of problems. Those who are being abused often become depressed or withdrawn because their abuse isn’t being addressed by the staff. To combat the abuse they are often forced to retreat into their own corner of the world. The abusers, who are often residents with diagnosed mental illness, are usually dismissed legally because of their disability or because the nursing home has an arbitration policy in place that discourages criminal charges. This leaves them to continue their behavior, often with dire consequences. For example, in 2014, a nursing home resident in Houston beat two of his roommates to death with a wheelchair armrest. This incident happened after many of the residents complained about the man’s argumentative and menacing personality.

Arbitration Increasing Resident Abuse

Nursing home administrators often require new residents to sign arbitration clauses before formally admitting them to the residential home. The idea behind an arbitration clause is to require potential charges to be brought up in the presence of a facilitator who works for the nursing home, rather than pressing charges through local law enforcement.

Most cases requiring arbitration are due to claims of low-quality care or medical negligence. However, resident-on-resident abuse is leading to a number of arbitration cases due to medical injury from other residents. The problem with allowing arbitration for resident-on-resident abuse is that victims are often swept by the wayside while perpetrators avoid criminal charges that could keep the same thing from happening again in the future.

How To Lower The Risk of Resident-On-Resident Abuse

It may not be possible to avoid all instances of resident abuse in a nursing home setting. However, if you’re looking for the right place for your loved one, there are some ways to minimize the risk of them experiencing resident abuse.

Do your research

Check into the background of local nursing homes. Look out for previous cases of abuse or wrongdoing in the facility. Your local library can help you track old news stories and civil records.

Look at a building’s layout

Are rooms crowded together? Does there seem to be groups of seniors jammed into one or two rooms, or are the areas cramped-looking and restrictive? Being surrounded by people in close quarters for a significant part of the day can lead to more conflict.

Find out the staff to resident ratio

Under-staffing is a huge problem in today’s nursing homes. Without the attention of staff, residents will not receive the regular care that they need, and because there are not enough caregivers to care for all the residents, there is also more opportunity for conflict or bullying to occur.

Be wary of nursing homes with forced arbitration clauses

Many nursing homes require potential residents to sign an arbitration clause before completing the admission process. This is intended to save the nursing home administrators from unjust lawsuits and costly court cases. However, these clauses can also keep aggressive or violent residents from being charged with a crime even if they commit assault or murder. This failure to hold aggressive residents accountable increases the likelihood that your loved one will be a victim in the future.