Skip to content
It can be very difficult when a loved one age to know how best to continue to care for him or her. Many people struggle with the choice of putting a parent or grandparent into a nursing home, fearing that they could become the victim of abuse or neglect. Federal and state laws require that nursing homes maintain the highest practicable mental, physical, and psychosocial well-being for their patients. Unfortunately, such cases do happen, with elderly victims suffering at the hands of their supposed caregivers.
There are four common primary forms of nursing home abuse:
Physical Abuse
- Physical abuse is defined as the use of physical force that may result in bodily injury, physical pain, or impairment.
- Physical abuse can range from beating, pushing, shoving to the inappropriate distribution of controlled substances and force-feeding.
Emotional/ Psychological Abuse
- Emotional abuse can encompass verbal assaults, insults, threats, intimidation, public embarrassment, and harassment.
- This type of social abuse can cause the elderly patient to exclude oneself from daily activities, be hesitant to speak up, among other long-lasting traumatic effects.
Financial Exploitation
- This type of abuse refers to taking advantage of elderly patients possessions. It is defined as improper use or distribution of the patient’s funds, property, or assets.
- Some forms of financial exploitation include, but are not limited to; forging a signature, convincing the elder to sign a document in a deceiving manner (i.e. contracts or a will).
Basic / Personal Hygiene Needs
-
The nursing home should always provide sufficient food, water, and a safe clean environment.
-
If a nursing home fails to provide adequate time to maintaining the nursing home impeccable, fulfilling dietary necessities properly it can put an elderly patient at serious risk of capturing an infection, and not having a strong immune system to combat an illness.
The first thing that you should look for when visiting nursing homes is at the staffing levels. It is critical that a nursing home is well staffed. This being because a vast majority of problems that can occur in a nursing home setting, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect and even malnourishment occur almost uniformly because of understaffing. However, if there are a sufficient number of caregivers, it becomes difficult for one to ignore or abuse a resident- because others are around and actively monitoring the residents.
Another thing to be mindful of when visiting a nursing home is how the staff members interact with patients. Pay close attention to how the staff speaks to and handles the patients. Are they using their names? Do the staff members seem to know the patients or, given high turnover, are they strangers? The more close interaction you are able to observe, the better sense you’ll have for what type of facility the nursing home is and whether it is one you can entrust with the care of your elderly loved one.
About Harvey L. Walner & Associates
Our attorneys have over 75 years of combined legal experience in personal injury specializations, including personal injury accidents, worker’s compensation, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases. If you or a loved one should have the misfortune of being in a personal injury accident, and you need a personal injury lawyer, the experienced attorneys at Harvey L. Walner & Associates, Ltd. are here for you. Call us today for a free consultation.
