Nursing Home Abuse/Neglect

How Abuse and Neglect Injures Seniors at Nursing Homes

The decision to send a loved one to a nursing home is always a difficult one, even if the person is in obvious need of care. Whether the stay is a temporary or permanent one, all of us expect the medical staff to treat our loved one with the greatest care and understanding.

Unfortunately, abuse and neglect has occurred in nursing homes and still occur in some of them today. Whether patients are intentionally abused or the neglect is due to overwork or carelessness, the end results are elderly patients who feel isolated and helpless, injuring both physically and psychologically.

However, in many cases injuries suffered from the abuse and neglect go unnoticed or are misinterpreted because the patient feels too threatened or embarrassed to talk openly to loved ones about what is happening. This means that the conditions may last for years and never become discovered even after death.

How to Spot Abuse & Neglect

In order to spot abuse and neglect of a loved one in a nursing home, it is important to understand the type of injuries that may occur from these actions. The type of abuse generally appears in the following forms:

• Physical
• Sexual
• Emotional
• Financial

Once you learn what to look for, it becomes much easier to get your loved one out of the nursing home and file a lawsuit for damages.

Neglect can also take several forms as well, but the most common results are bed sores or “decubitus ulcers” (see [[“Bed Sores”]]). This is the most common form of injury due to neglect. A bed sore occurs to the skin from the pressure of lying in one place for too long. The skin itself will suffer damage that is easy to spot if the area is looked over. Nursing home staff is required to turn their patients over in regular intervals to keep this from occurring. When this doesn’t happen, bed sores can result.

What You Can Do?

If you suspect that your loved one is being neglected or abused, you need to take the appropriate steps to ensure their safety. The first thing you should do is contact a lawyer that specializes in this field as they will know how to proceed from a legal standpoint. Depending on the type of abuse, a lawyer may recommend bringing in an outside doctor to conduct a medical exam, and photos of the signs of abuse or neglect will be taken as well. If the abuse is financial, then their bank records can be examined to see if there have been any unwarranted withdrawals of funds.

Emotional abuse can be harder to diagnose, but the warning signs will still be there. Having a lawyer present will mean that their rights will be protected, a new, safe nursing home will be selected for them to stay and a lawsuit that will at least bring some financial relief will be initiated.

If you suspect that your loved one is suffering from abuse or neglect in the nursing home, hiring a lawyer can help reveal the injury or injuries they have suffered and bring about a lawsuit to help rectify the situation. Contact MedMal Patient Advocacy today for a free consultation and to see how we can work to help your situation.