The federal law addressing the rights of nursing home patients plainly expresses that a nursing home resident “has the right to be free from verbal, sexual, physical, and mental abuse, corporal punishment, and involuntary seclusion.”
Furthermore, it defines the following terms:
- Abuse: The intentional infliction of the deprivation of care, injury, intimidation, punishment, or unreasonable confinement that results in bodily harm, pain, or emotional anguish.
- Neglect: The failure to provide a patient or resident the care and services which are necessary to keep them free of pain or harm. It doesn’t matter if the failure is intentional or not. It can also be a failure to react to circumstances that cause physical or emotional damage to the person.
