Visiting Gran and Gramps: Telltale Signs of Nursing Home Abuse

Almost all elderly people in the nursing homes are in such caring facility because their families are or they do not have the capacity to care for their daily needs. Being in a caring facility, assistance by all accounts should be at hand.

The elderly need to be treated, not only with respect and reverence but also with love and abundant caring. Most nursing homes all over the country promise of such kind of services for the elderly.

Many, if not most of these institutions indeed show caring and conscientiousness with regards to tending and caring for the elderly. Unfortunately, some do not show the same amount of professionalism and are negligent in their supposed jobs. Some facilities, without knowing it, hire people who do deliberate or conscious harm to the elderly people housed in said facilities.

Some would impugn physical harm, others may target the elderly some mischief that would cause emotional damage to the sensitive elderly.

If you have an elderly loved one who is in a nursing home, try to check up on them to know if they are indeed under excellent caring hands. It would be quite disappointing if your elderly happen to be in such caring facility and suffering from varying degrees of negligence and abuse. Nursing home abuse is a legal matter that must be probed further and brought out in the open.

Therefore, the next time you go visit your Gran or Gramps, it is important to know how to recognize or identify the signs of mistreatment or nursing home abuse.

Here are some of the factors to look out for:

Check out scars or wounds in the skin that was not there before they were admitted into the nursing home or during your last visit. They could be inflicted through various possible circumstances.

- Bruises and scars - as people age, their skins thin out and become delicate and easy to bruise or tear. Elderly must be handled gently to avoid causing injury.

- Falls - There are times when a particular elderly already need special assistance to sit upright. Sometimes if the nursing home staff forgets or ignores the special needs of a particular elderly, the elderly is likely to fall every time he or she tries to sit up.

Some neglectful staff or nursing home management is insensitive of the elderly deteriorating eyesight. Pathways must always be kept clear of any obstacles or debris that would cause them to lose their balance and fall.

- Tight Restraints - Some elderly who already need restraints to prevent them from falling, losing their way, or wandering off in unsafe place when restraint is applied very tightly, it would cause the elderly skin to break or bruise.

- Rough handling - Some overworked staff of the nursing home might be too overworked that they tend to become impatient and irritable with the elderly. A tight grip from a person may immediately cause pain and bruises in the elderly skin.

- Pressure sores can break out if the nursing staff become negligent in their obligation to turn bedridden elderly in their beds every two hours of so.

- Elderly who suffer from anxiety or depression loses weight dramatically, uncharacteristic loss of appetite or dehydration may be signs f emotional abuse being inflicted on the elderly.

Gauge the mood of your elderly loved one each time you come to visit him or her. Look them up carefully, pay special attention to them on every visit to know how they are being treated.