According to the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), around 40 percent of individuals who are 65 years and older will require “skilled residential nursing care,” and between five percent and 33 percent of long-term-care residents reported suicide ideation with the past 30 days.
Sadly, nursing home facilities show a higher rate of suicides at an annual rate of as much as 34.8 per 100,000 residents, compared with the rates among older adults living independently outside of nursing homes.
Because we admit our loved ones into nursing homes to care for them, especially in all the ways that are specific to the elderly’s unique physical and mental ailments, we trust that the facility staff will include in this care the assessment, treating, and management of residents who demonstrate suicidal ideation or potential.
If a nursing home failed your loved one in this capacity, and he or she committed suicide as a result, a Zanes Law mental illness and suicide lawyer in Phoenix, AZ will do everything from A to Z to champion your right to be compensated. Call (866)-499-8989 for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Research reported in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry revealed the following risk factors for suicides in nursing homes:
Researchers remain divided on whether residents of nursing homes present a higher risk of suicide than members of their demographic who live out in the community at large. The arguments presented on each side go like this:
Research in this area rarely considers how the nursing homes themselves or their intervention protocols weigh in as risk factors for suicides among residents. Little is known about suicides in these facilities. However, research reported in APJH reveals that, besides psychiatric disorders, several factors unique to the facility do play a role, including bed size and high staff turnover.
What we do know, however, is that Minimum Data Set (MDS) requires nursing homes to screen their residents for symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation and to implement safety measures that can manage any suicide ideations or inclinations in residents who demonstrate in their MDS responses.
If your loved one committed suicide in the nursing home where he/she resided, Zanes Law’s legal team will investigate the facility’s liability and hold the organization and/or its staff liable for your loss.
Establishing a nursing home’s liability in a resident suicide means venturing into dense and complex territory. By definition, suicide victims cause their own deaths. The objective in such a legal case centers on proving that the nursing home played a role in the suicide.
By asking several questions, we will lay a solid foundation for this liability:
By these criteria, if nursing home MDS indicates suicidal ideation or behavioral illness in your loved one before admission, and/or if the staff failed to respond to and manage potential risk factors, we can lay the groundwork for liability in your loved one’s suicide.
Zanes Law’s mental illness and suicide lawyers in Phoenix, AZ will collaborate with psychologists and mental health experts to establish a framework for your loved one’s mental state around the time of his or her suicide.
We will also gather evidence from other sources, including statements we solicit from witnesses, photographs, and surveillance videos.
To pursue legal action against the nursing home where your loved one committed suicide, we will address all elements of the “duty of care” precept required by law:
We will do everything from A to Z to prove your case that nursing home negligence caused your loved one’s suicide.
No amount of compensation can bring back your loved one or heal the pain and suffering that haunts a family after a loved one commits suicide. Many suicides can be prevented, however, and we would expect as much when we entrust our loved ones to medical and trained professionals in a nursing home.
The mental illness and suicide lawyers in Phoenix, AZ at Zanes Law will do everything from A to Z to see that justice is served in the case of your loved one’s suicide in a nursing home. Call our firm at (866)-499-8989 for a free, no-obligation consultation.