Four Signs Your Loved One Might Be Being Abused

It’s an incredibly difficult fact of life that most of us will eventually face — placing an elderly loved one in a nursing home. And it’s even more painful facing the prospect that your loved could be abused in the nursing home.

You feel certain you would catch the signs of abuse, but sometimes these signs can be subtle. If you feel your loved one has experienced an elevated number of ailments, that’s a red flag. According to the Nursing Home Abuse Center’s website, these issues can occur because of a lack of appropriate care, neglect or can simply result from the declining physical state that accompanies old age. So how can you tell what’s going on?

Signs Your Loved One Might Be Being Abused

• Falls: The most frequent and potentially severe cause of injury in the elderly is a fall that results in a bone fracture. Making sure that the elderly resident is observed regularly will prevent the fall from turning into something more serious. In a facility without proper observation, it is possible that a resident could lie on the floor for hours, exacerbating any additional trauma they may have experienced due to the fall.
• Bedsores: A bedsore results from pressure that is unrelieved and persists for hours and even days, which means that appropriate attention is not being given to the resident. A patient who spends extended periods of time in bed is subject to bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers.
• Dehydration: Dehydration can be lethal and is a result of poor care or dementia that prevents the individual from responding to normal bodily needs. Maintaining a rigid schedule and assuring that staff regularly addresses the dietary and hydration needs of the resident can help you to avoid this issue.
• Malnutrition: In a nursing home facility without nutritional plans for its residents, malnutrition is a real danger. Improper nutrition can result in the kind of weakness or fragility of bones that results in falls and fractures, as well as creating a compromised immune system. Every patient should be evaluated regularly to make sure that all of his or her nutritional needs are being met.

If you suspect some form of nursing home abuse is taking place with your loved one, document every conversation and incident and then discuss the situation with a personal injury attorney from the Florida Injury Law Group. Nursing home abuse in Fort Lauderdale should not be tolerated and you owe it to your loved one to make certain they receive the best care possible.