A decrease in health among the elderly often necessitates more care than a family can provide. Putting a senior family member in a nursing home is a tough decision for everyone involved. However, after this decision has been made, the senior person and their loved ones should be able to trust the facility’s staff to treat them with professionalism, vigilance, and care. Unfortunately, however, nursing facilities are plagued by instances of neglect, abuse, and injuries that lead to needless suffering for the residents. Following are some tips from a nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer in Wisconsin.
How might an elderly person be mistreated?
The most noticeable kind of elder abuse is physical violence. When your loved one suffers cuts, bruises, fractures, or head injuries frequently, especially if there are no other obvious causes, you may be dealing with physical abuse.
Elder abuse, like any other type of abuse, comes in a wide variety of forms. There may be non-physical abuse present if there is inexplicable anxiety or a drastic shift in behavior.
- Torture of the mind and heart
- Money-motivated exploitation
- Underreporting of nursing home abuse makes it impossible to reliably estimate its prevalence.
That is why it is so important for loved ones to recognize the signs of abuse.
Abuse at a nursing home, defined.
The difference between abuse and neglect is that abuse is an intentional act of harm while neglect occurs when a caregiver fails to satisfy their responsibility for the care of an older person. Mistakes might be made when showing neglect. When caretakers in a nursing home ignore a patient’s urgent requests for help with things like bathing, dressing, eating, or medical care, they have committed neglect.
While visiting loved ones in a nursing facility, keep the following in mind:
- Bedsores and other pressure ulcers
- Necrotizing fasciitis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are examples of dehydration-related infections.
- Malnutrition
- Unsanitary conditions
- Rapid weight gain or loss
- Neglect can also lead to medical errors and other incidents that could have been avoided.
Attorneys will look into any allegations of nursing home abuse to keep your loved one safe.
Abuse and neglect in nursing homes are being thoroughly probed.
Abuse or neglect in a care home can be hard to prove. Wisconsin law mandates that nursing facilities provide adequate care, yet the state’s inspections are minimal at best. Age, bad attitude, dissatisfaction with inpatient confinement, and early-onset dementia are common reasons given by caregivers for a resident’s lack of improvement.
