Nursing home abuse is often difficult to detect due to a number of reasons. Abused elders are often afraid to report abuse. Some nursing home residents are unable to report abuse due to physical or mental limitations. In some more rare cases abuse isn’t reported because the resident never knew it occurred.

In December 2015 an article was published on a popular news sites that cited various instances of Nursing Home staff taking photos of residents, some of which partially or completely exposed, and sharing on social sites, like Snapchat and with other staff. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, has asked congress to better define how aggressively elder abuse claims and cases are identified and prevented.

“Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch following a ProPublica article in December that identified some three dozen instances since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes and assisted-living centers have surreptitiously shared photos or videos of residents, some of whom were partially or completely naked. At least 16 cases involved Snapchat, a social media service in which photos appear for a few seconds and then disappear with no lasting record.” – Propublica.org

In the weeks leading up to this other articles have surfaced which exposed a very flawed system responsible for preventing and reacting to instances of Nursing Home abuse here in New York.

In a response to the State’s incapacity to protect Nursing Home abuse victims, we have formed a group of attorneys, the Elder Law Nursing Home Abuse group, to focus on helping victims and their families. Click here to learn more.