PREVENTION
One
of the best gifts you can give to
an older loved one is protection from
possible abuse, neglect, and mistreatment
at the hands of a caregiver or nursing
home staff. At the heart of prevention
lies your choice in the facility to
place your loved one in. (Please refer
to Choosing
a Nursing Home to see a more complete
explanation of what to look for in
a nursing home.) Staff that are properly
trained and are aware of the legal
and moral consequences of their actions
are ideal to provide proper nursing
home care. In addition, they should
be supported by an administration
that actively prevents abuse and insists
on filing any and all incidence reports.
Prevention
Steps
Monitor
to make sure the nursing home follows
its personalized health and care plans
for your loved one.
Make
sure that the home conducts an initial
assessment of the resident's functional
capacity. If anything changes for
the worse, address the problem as
soon as possible in order to stop
anything that may be happening and
anything that could cause serious
trouble down the road.
Keep
a copy of a resident’s federal and
state rights. If anything appears
amiss, or you find out that something
has occurred that violates these rights,
immediately bring them to the attention
of the administration.
If
your loved one has difficulty moving
around or is bed ridden, check often
for bed sores that the staff may have
missed. If you do find bed sores,
treat them early on to prevent them
from worsening and inform the staff
or administration. Follow up to make
sure they have been handled correctly.
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Prevention
can also involve safeguarding your
loved one from falling, which can
cause serious problems to the short
and long term health of a nursing
home resident. Make sure that your
loved one stays active and undergoes
some physical conditioning in order
to maintain or develop strength and
balance. This is one of the surest
ways to prevent falls. As well, talk
to the nursing home about adding stabilizers
or hand bars for the resident to grasp
in living areas, bathrooms, and showers.
 One of the reasons
that nursing homes benefit from taking
preventative steps to avoid potential
problems is that they risk losing
their Medicare dollars. They must
be in compliance with state and federal
regulations for this to happen. You
can leverage this to insure that your
loved one is properly cared for and
does not experience institutional
neglect of institution abuse.
If
You Fear Abuse Has Occurred
If
you fear that abuse may have occurred,
you should be aware that defendants
often deny liability for their actions
or place the blame on other residents
or on the resident themselves. In
the majority of cases, abuse or neglect
is the fault of either a staff member
or the facility itself.
As
soon as you fear an injury has occurred,
begin collecting as many facts about
the case as you are able. The nursing
home, especially if they know they
are guilty, will not cooperate in
this process. The perpetrator of the
abuse or neglect may change their
stories, alter paperwork, or commit
other acts if they fear they are facing
legal action. This is why it is important
to gather material now so that it
makes it difficult for them to forge
documents, etc. later on.
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