Personal Injury Lawyer

We should be able to feel as if our loved ones will be properly taken care of after we place them in a nursing home or an assisted living facility. After all, it is their new home. Even though the elderly are supposed to be properly taken care of in the nursing homes and assisted living facilities, abuse usually happens way more than you would think it should, and sadly, it can have drastic impacts on an elderly person. The elderly are often the least protected and it is evident in nursing home abuse cases. If the victim of the abuse suffers from dementia or is not able to communicate, a lot of these abuse cases can go unreported. Talking to an attorney should be the first thing that you do when you feel as if your loved one isn’t being properly taken care of or being abused in the nursing home. There are several ways in which nursing home abuse can happen. Here are just four of the ones that happen most frequently, and what you should be on the lookout for:

Physical Abuse

As expected, the most frequent type of abuse is physical abuse. This occurs when your loved one is touched by someone and harmed. Physical abuse consists of the staff hitting, scratching, inappropriately restraining, or alternatively harming the elderly person on purpose. It’s usually obvious to see the signs of physical abuse. 

Emotional Abuse

It’s much more of a puzzling objective to prove emotional abuse, as there is no physical proof it exists. Emotional abuse usually happens when the caretaker makes the elderly person uncomfortable in one way or another. The elderly person is given emotional discomfort when the caretaker makes fun of them, embarrasses them, or threatens them. In other words, they are mistreated by the caretaker or ridiculed. Since there aren’t any physical marks on the elderly person’s body from emotional abuse, it would be extremely hard to make a claim about it in court. 

Sexual Abuse 

Sexual abuse comes much like any form of sexual abuse. This happens when the caretaker partakes in sexual contact with an elder without having their permission. In some instances it can even be consensual, but is still considered abuse because your loved one is being manipulated. It’s extremely hard to think about a caretaker doing this to our loved ones, but it happens all the time. 

Financial Abuse

Caretakers will sometimes influence an elderly person to give away money that they don’t have to or guilt trip them into helping them financially. In several events, the caretakers will manipulate the elderly people into giving them important information such as credit cards and bank accounts. Financial abuse is also seen as the caretakers intimidating the elderly into involving in their last will and testament. 

Contact an Attorney 

If you or a loved one has experienced nursing home abuse, contact a lawyer, like a nursing home lawyer in Atlanta, GA from the law office of Andrew R. Lynch, P.C., today.