Baltimore Mental Health Malpractice Lawyer
Receiving adequate mental care is often very critical in making sure that patients remain healthy. In many cases, not receiving or receiving inadequate mental health care has the potential to result in very serious medical complications and can even prove fatal. Speak with a Baltimore mental health malpractice lawyer if you or a loved one have suffered from a mistake.
As a result, people who receive any type of mental health care have a right for medical professionals to meet a standard of care that is accepted by other medical professionals of the same specialty in the same geographic area.
For people who are impacted by medical malpractice in the course of receiving mental health care, it can prove particularly helpful to obtain the assistance of a Baltimore mental health malpractice lawyer.
What Constitutes Mental Health Malpractice
Malpractice involves the failure to satisfy professionally accepted standards of care for patients who seek mental health treatment.
When medical providers fail to meet this standard of care and a patient is harmed, malpractice is considered to have occurred. Deciding mental health malpractice often involves very complicated issues.
If mental health care falls below accepted standards of care and a patient is harmed, mental health malpractice will likely be found to have occurred. Some of the most common elements of medical malpractice include the following acts or omissions:
- Failure to properly diagnose a patient
- Improperly subscribing or withholding medications from a patient
- Sexual abuse or any type of sexual relationship that arose between a mental health care provider and a person under their care.
- Threatening a patient with abandonment or harm
- Unnecessary use of restraints on a patient
- Verbal abuse of a patient
- Violation of confidentiality by sharing patient information without consent
No matter the type of mental health malpractice that occurs, the results can be particularly severe. Some of the complications associated with these types of medical malpractice include deteriorating mental health and suicide attempts.
No matter the type of medical malpractice that you experience, a Baltimore mental health malpractice lawyer understands just how devastating these complications can be and will remain committed to fighting for the compensation that you deserve.
Establishing that Psychiatric Malpractice Has Occurred
When a victim files a mental health medical malpractice claim, they still must establish that malpractice has occurred by establishing several important elements including the following:
- A duty of care must have arisen from a doctor-patient relationship.
- A breach of the accepted standard of care must have occurred. To assess whether the standard of care was breached, courts will examine what is considered acceptable treatment by examining other medical professionals in the same specialty in the same region.
- Harm must have occurred due to the breach in the accepted level of care. Harm can include attempted suicide, suicide, violence to other parties, or any other type of decline in the mental health of others.
- A causal relationship must exist between the harm and the negligence.
In some cases, it can prove difficult to establish that inappropriate mental health treatment resulted in a patient being harmed.
Fortunately, a Baltimore mental health malpractice lawyer at the Rice, Murtha & Psoras knows how to collect evidence to establish that a person was harmed by mental health medical malpractice.
Obtain the Services of a Skilled Mental Health Malpractice Attorney
If you or a loved one has been impacted by any type of mental health medical malpractice, it is often a wise idea to obtain the assistance of a Baltimore mental health malpractice lawyer who can make sure that you obtain the compensation that you deserve for additional medical expenses, lost wages, and other associated costs.
By contacting the legal counsel at Rice, Murtha & Psoras, you can begin to take the steps necessary to make sure that your case resolves in the best possible manner.
Contact our law office today for assistance in navigating the many issues that can arise in your case.
