Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The punishment didn’t fit the crime in the eyes of the victim’s stepdaughter. She expressed her disappointment with the judge’s decision during a lengthy address at a court hearing. But the decision stood.

In January 2008, two employees at Radius Health Care Center in Quincy, Maine, saw their co-worker Elizabeth Landry, a 25-year-old nursing assistant, slapping a man on the head with an open hand, swearing at him and calling him and obscene name. She also reportedly pulled the man out of his wheelchair and threw him into a bed. The man was a stroke victim and used a wheelchair for mobility.

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Lawmakers are considering a bill that would protect nursing home residents and their families from losing their right to hold long-term care facilities accountable for negligent and abusive care.

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Canadian officials blame inadequate staff-to-patient ratios for overworking, under training and simply frustrating Nova Scotia nursing home staff members, causing them to be abusive to their patients, according to The Canadian Press. As a result, 30 incidents of physical, financial or emotional abuse by staff members were reported over a one-year period.

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New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo continues to target those who abuse and neglect individuals in institutional care homes. Earlier this week, three employees of a western New York nursing home were charged and one convicted of abusive acts against elderly patients. Many of the patients attacked have cognitive disorders, according to WIVB-TV.

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Caring and Sharing Home for Adults is home to up to 46 people in need of assistance from others. Like the nearly 50 other assisted living facilities in Newport News, Va., it is inspected by the state’s licensing division at least once a year. In 2008, the facility was inspected nine times – more than half of those were in response to complaints. The complaints were often anonymous and varied between neglect to children living there to spoiled food. But a new complaint about alleged verbal abuse by one employee resulted in action by the facility, according to the Daily Press.

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You could say that Clifford Verity meant well. He moved in with his aging mother, Ruth, took her to doctors’ appointments, even brought home fresh fish for dinner. He had worked previously as a certified nursing assistant caring for elderly in a nursing facility, and felt he could grant her wish not to be moved into a nursing home, but to age and die gracefully at home.

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This week, members of the U.S. Senate will consider a bill that will establish a nationwide system of background checks for individuals who apply for jobs at long-term care facilities, The Daily Times (Farmington, New Mexico) reported today. If passed, the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act would allow nursing homes to choose not to hire potentially abusive caregivers based on a coordinated system of checks against abuse and neglect registries, state police records and the FBI national database of criminal history records.

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