If your loved one lives in a nursing home, you may worry about their health, well-being, and happiness. Most nursing homes provide excellent care to residents, but others are primarily concerned with profit—not resident satisfaction. Those nursing homes are more likely to understaff or hire underqualified employees, and when caregivers are inexperienced or spread too thin, residents are more likely to be abused or neglected.
Some signs of abuse and neglect are obvious. Residents who are physically abused may develop cuts, scrapes, bruises, and even broken bones. Neglected residents may lose weight, become dehydrated, or suddenly develop new health problems or a worsening of existing health problems. However, other types of mistreatment are difficult to detect.
Mental abuse can occur for years without family members realizing it. When residents are humiliated, insulted, shouted at, or intimidated, they may become withdrawn, anxious, depressed, and fearful. In some cases, they may be threatened into silence, causing them to become too afraid to tell their loved ones and other staff members about the abuse.
Financial abuse may also occur over a long period of time without detection. Staff members may steal residents’ personal possessions, coerce them into giving them money and other assets, or even make fraudulent changes to major financial documents, including property deeds, vehicle titles, and living wills.
It’s important to be on the lookout for less obvious types of abuse and neglect and to be ready to act if you suspect they’re occurring. The Virginia nursing home abuse lawyers at Lowell Stanley Injury Lawyers have helped many families dealing with nursing home mistreatment, and we know how to build claims that get results. Contact us today.
