How to Know When You Need to Hire a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

The decision to trust your beloved family member’s care to a nursing home is usually a complicated and difficult one. Once you chose a facility, you trusted that its staff would care for and meet the basic needs of your loved one. You had every reason to believe that he or she adult would be treated with compassion, respect, and dignity throughout his or her stay.

Sadly, nursing home abuse is a common occurrence that happens even under unlikely circumstances. If you suspect someone you love has been abused or neglected at his or her nursing home, you have every reason to be infuriated. Fortunately, nursing home abuse lawyers can take aggressive and decisive legal action against the party responsible. Attorneys can pursue compensation for your loved one’s suffering, and help you and your family overcome the challenges that arise when you discover a loved one was neglected or abused in a nursing home.

The Warning Signs and Symptoms of Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence:

Physical Abuse
While the more conspicuous forms of physical abuse are immediately apparent, residents of nursing homes may be subjected to many other behaviors that constitute physical abuse. For instance, it is considered abusive to use unreasonable force to restrain a resident.

Sexual Abuse
Allegations of sexual abuse need to be duly investigated by the appropriate authorities. However, you need to take action to protect your loved one immediately if you suspect he or she has been the victim of unwanted or otherwise non-consensual sexual contact.

Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is harder to detect, as it can be subtle and take multiple forms. It may involve both verbal or nonverbal actions and can be highly damaging to an aging adult. Be aware of emotional or psychological abuse, which may include blaming the victim, ridicule, or humiliation. These may cause an older person to withdraw and seek isolation, feel intimidated, or feel otherwise threatened by the abuser’s actions toward the person.

Negligence
The actions of staff may not always directly cause harm to your loved one. However, he or she may still be experiencing abuse. Any willful failure to provide adequate and appropriate care constitutes neglect.

Malnutrition and Dehydration
As obvious as it may seem, nursing home staff members are required to monitor how much and how often residents are eating and drinking. If they fail to do so, a senior living in a nursing home may become malnourished or dehydrated.

Falls
Few other common accidents carry the same potential for severe consequences to an older adult’s health as a fall. Nursing home facilities should be aware of falls and pursue efforts to prevent falls on their premises, as well.

Bedsores
To avoid bedsores, nursing home staff members should observe residents with limited mobility and provide them with assistance shifting in their beds. Bedsores are potentially dangerous and entirely avoidable with the right amount of effort.

These are just a few of the signs and symptoms that elder neglect or abuse is occurring. There are many more. If you suspect that your loved one is the victim of these abuses, you are well-advised to take action by hiring a nursing home abuse and neglect attorney. Contact a knowledgeable and experienced nursing home abuse lawyer in Trenton, NJ today.

Thanks to Davis & Brusca for their insight into nursing home abuse and when to hire a lawyer.