Residents in nursing homes are typically frail. The majority are senior citizens, and many have dementia. By definition, they all need 24-hour a day skilled nursing services. Nevertheless, though they live in an institutional setting, it is crucial to keep in mind that residents retain all of the rights of people who live outside of a facility. This includes the right to live free of physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse and the right to be treated with dignity. It also includes the right to have the same access to criminal justice as anyone living in the outside community.

Unfortunately, too often, when individuals go into a nursing home, society views them as having entered a separate world, where different rules apply. This is not true. To strengthen realization of vital protections for seniors in nursing homes, LTCCC undertook a study to identify promising practices that have been employed in different communities to address elder abuse, neglect, and crime in residential settings.

This pages features a selection of resources that are free to use, share, and adapt. We also recommend viewing LTCCC’s 2020 Symposium on identifying and addressing resident abuse and neglect.