While the vast majority of assisted living facilities do their best to keep their residents safe and secure, there are unfortunate cases where staff members are allowed or enabled to abuse their elderly residents. When this occurs, knowing how to understand signs of abuse, and what to do to hold abusers accountable, is absolutely crucial. Doing so can ensure you get your elderly loved one out of harm’s way as quickly as humanly possible. Additionally, it can help you determine whether you or your loved one may be entitled to financial compensation for the damages that you’ve suffered.
What Forms of Assisted Living Abuse Exist?
Abuse in assisted living can take the form of physical, sexual, or mental harm. Residents who are the victims of financial exploitation or neglect also experience assisted living abuse. Abuse at assisted living facilities is even occasionally brought on by the resident’s family members. Understanding the complexities of these forms of abuse can help you protect your elderly loved one from experiencing abuse at their assisted living facility. There are a lot of nuances that can exist when examining whether abuse is happening at an assisted living facility, so the help of an assisted living facility attorney can help you navigate these scenarios in a safer, more effective fashion.
These are a few of the most common scenarios of these types of abuse. Psychological abuse typically occurs via bullying, verbal abuse, harassment, and forced social isolation. General neglect typically occurs when residents are experiencing a lack of treatment, or the facility being used to house them is not lawfully maintained. Financial exploitation typically occurs when residents have their finances exploited by either a family member or the assisted living facility that houses them. Sexual abuse typically occurs when a staff member or fellow assisted living member committed non-consensual sexual acts against a resident. Lastly, physical abuse typically includes hitting, slapping, forcible restraint, food withholding, and other physically damaging acts.
Spotting Potential Signs of Assisted Living Abuse
Abuse in assisted care facilities frequently goes unreported for a long time, which can in turn cause issues with getting it handled, and seeking legal action against abusive staff members. People who have family members who live in assisted living homes should go there frequently, so they can ensure their family members are being taken care of properly, and are not being abused.
Abuse victims who live in assisted living facilities frequently keep these facts to themselves. A person may conceal facts because of embarrassment, fear, or the inability to report abuse owing to a handicap, infirmity, or lack of phone access. Families can spot assisted living abuse of their loved ones by seeing specific warning flags. The more educated you are about the signs you should watch out for, the more effectively you can protect your loved one (and other residents) from an abusive assisted living facility’s staff members. You should be watching out for excessive restraints, poor hygiene, improperly maintained facilities, intimidating staff behavior, sudden social isolation, drastic mood changes, unexplained injuries, rapid weight loss, and other mental health disturbances.
Reporting and Filing an Assisted Living Abuse Lawsuit
Filing a report regarding suspected (or known) assisted living facility elderly abuse is the first step you should take. Residents or their family members should notify the state’s long-term care ombudsman if serious assisted living abuse happens in a facility. Investigations into allegations of abuse in long-term care facilities are carried out by the state’s long-term care ombudsman. On behalf of the victim, the ombudsman may get in touch with the adult protective services organization. If not, the occupants or their relatives ought to.
An assisted living abuse attorney needs to be contacted right away once the resident is no longer in immediate danger. The victim and the victim’s family’s legal rights might be discussed with the aid of an assisted living abuse attorney. State rules on assisted living differ from one another. A knowledgeable assisted living abuse attorney may advise clients on when and how to file a case by each state’s legal requirements. An attorney who specializes in representing victims of assisted living abuse can aid them in obtaining financial recompense for their suffering and medical expenses.
Keep Your Loved One Safe
By using the handy information in this guide, you can more effectively keep your loved one protected from potential abuse and abusers. The more proactive you are, the better. Taking care of elderly individuals is no easy task, but your loved one deserves the best, most respectful care possible when they entrust their life to an assisted living facility.
