North Carolina law states that nursing home staff must provide quality care to nursing home residents while maintaining their dignity. Some nursing homes do the opposite, but it’s not always easy to spot. Keep reading to learn more about what constitutes elder neglect and exploitation.
Nursing home abuse and neglect
There are many ways that nursing home abuse and neglect can manifest, including physical or verbal aggression. Physical abuse includes hitting, kicking, slapping and pinching. This may be in response to a nursing home resident’s behavior or some other reason.
Physical nursing home abuse can also involve restraints. They’re sometimes used to tie nursing home residents down so that they don’t move and hurt themselves or others, but when used improperly, restraints can cause serious injury.
Verbal abuse includes making threats against nursing home residents, cursing at them and ridiculing their actions. Sometimes, nursing home staff will embarrass nursing homes residents, which may be in response to a resident’s behavior or for no reason at all.
Some nursing home residents get exploited by the staff, which can take many forms. You can recognize the signs in financial-related documents. For instance, the staff may use deception or coercion in signing of contracts or wills for their own financial or material benefit.
What causes this issue?
Some nursing homes are understaffed, which increases the risk of nursing home residents falling victim to elder neglect and exploitation. These types of nursing facilities often have high vacancy rates due to low compensation levels for staff members who remain employed there. This results in an insufficient number of nursing home staff members to provide nursing homes residents with the level of care they deserve. Other reasons that nursing home residents may fall victim to abuse and neglect include poor training of new nursing home staff members, drug abuse among staff members and weak policy enforcement in the nursing homes.
Neglect of senior residents is a significant problem that can lead to severe injuries and even death. Loved ones of a resident should keep a close eye on them and report any suspicious staff behavior.
