Elder abuse and neglect is far too common. According to the National Council on Aging, approximately 1 in 50 Americans over the age of 60 have experienced elder abuse. There are even studies that show almost 5 million elders are abused or neglected each year, but only 1 in 14 cases are reported to the police.

While psychological abuse is the most common form of elder abuse, emotional, sexual and physical abuse is just as prevalent. In nursing homes, the risk factors are no different. If the Trump administration passes the rule to allow forced arbitration, nursing home residents rights to sue the facility for negligence or abuse will be extremely limited. Resident would give up their right to a jury or court trial in the event of negligence or abuse at the hands of the facility. Instead, the status of malpractice would be decided by neutral arbitration.

On top of this issue, if the future resident and his/her family refuses to sign the agreement, they may be denied admission to the facility. Eliminating and preventing forced arbitration agreements puts the power back into the family’s hands when abuse and negligence claims arise.

Deciding to put a loved one in a nursing home is a tough enough choice, why make matters more stressful by allowing this type of “agreement”? Let’s prevent the Trump administration from allowing forced arbitration. Sign our petition and share it with your friends and loved ones. We must fight this change together if we want to protect our elderly citizens from abuse and neglect.

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