Failure to Protect Residents From Verbal and Mental Abuse by Another Resident
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to protect residents from verbal and mental abuse when it did not prevent one resident from repeatedly directing profanity and offensive language toward her roommates. One resident with bipolar disorder and dementia with behavioral disturbance, who lacked capacity to understand and make decisions and had severely impaired cognitive skills for daily decision making, became verbally aggressive and yelled profanity during an attempted interview. This same resident was reported by a roommate to be not mentally stable and to frequently use profanity toward staff and visitors, creating a sad experience for the roommate, who reported feeling scared and mentally exhausted. Another cognitively intact resident, who was independent or required minimal assistance with ADLs and had capacity to understand and make decisions, reported that the verbally aggressive resident repeatedly called her offensive names. This resident stated she felt neglected and verbally abused and expressed that the other resident’s mental condition was not a justification for exposing others to verbal abuse and yelling, and that the facility should have intervened from the beginning. Facility leadership, including the Administrator and DON, acknowledged that abuse includes verbal and emotional harm such as yelling, profanity, name-calling, and intimidation, and that the facility is responsible for protecting all residents from abuse, regardless of cognitive status, as reflected in the facility’s Abuse and Neglect Prevention Management policy.
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