Senior Partner
Nursing home neglect and abuse is an important public safety issue in our communities—especially as our population ages and families increasingly rely on nursing homes and assisted living facilities to care for our loved ones. Washington State’s Abuse of Vulnerable Adults Act (VAS), Chapter 74.34 RCW, provides important protections for elderly and dependent adults who may be vulnerable to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or financial exploitation. The law is a powerful consumer-protection and safety statute that promotes dignity, accountability, and justice for vulnerable adults throughout Washington State.
Who Is Protected?
The law protects vulnerable adults, including older adults who cannot care for themselves, incapacitated persons, individuals with developmental disabilities, residents of licensed care facilities, and certain individuals receiving in-home services. The law expressly protects adults staying in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult family homes, and other types of facilities.
What Rights are Protected?
The law protects vulnerable adults from neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, intimidation, unreasonable confinement, punishment, exploitation, and improper restraints.
Neglect includes failing to provide the goods and services necessary to maintain health and safety or engaging in conduct that places a vulnerable adult at serious risk of harm. Neglect can be a pattern of conduct or inaction, or a single action or inaction that has a serious disregard of health, welfare, or safety consequences to a vulnerable adult.
Conduct or inaction that qualifies as neglect may include actions such as failing to make or follow a care plan for the resident, wrongfully discharging the resident from a facility, failing to providing proper staffing or supervision for a resident’s needs, and many other scenarios.
The law also prohibits the misuse of a vulnerable adult’s money, property, or assets for another person’s benefit.
People living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are also protected by federal regulations and laws, which prohibit neglect and abuse, and require nursing homes to maintain admissions, care, and safety standards at all times.
Reporting and Investigation Rights
Suspected abuse, neglect, abandonment, or exploitation can be reported to Adult Protective Services and law enforcement. Nursing home and other facility employees are mandatory reporters, who must report suspected abuse or neglect. State agencies are required to investigate qualifying reports. The statute includes protections for residents and whistleblowers who report abuse or neglect.
Civil Lawsuits and Remedies
If a loved one has been injured or killed because of nursing home neglect or abuse, the vulnerable adult protection laws provide an independent civil cause of action allowing vulnerable adults to seek damages for abuse, neglect, abandonment, or financial exploitation. This means a legal claim made under the law is in addition to other legal claims that may exist. Successful plaintiffs may recover damages for the injury or death, including medical bills and pain and suffering, and the costs and reasonable attorney fees that were necessary to bring the legal claim. Lawsuits against nursing homes and other facilities that exploit our most vulnerable populations bring public scrutiny and accountability.
Vulnerable adults may also seek court orders designed to stop abuse, exploitation, or harassment and provide immediate protection from further harm.
This blog is Part 1 in a series covering Washington’s vulnerable adult protection laws and regulations and introduces Washington’s Vulnerable Adult Protection Act. There are several other laws and regulations that protect vulnerable adults in Washington that this author will cover in future blogs.