Abuse of the elderly is unfortunately all too common in this day and age. There is nothing that sparks such outrage than stories in the media of seniors being financially, emotionally, mentally or physically abused.
While it may be inevitable that your elders will need to spend time in a nursing home, you are placing them there for their care and safety. You are not taking them out of their familiar environment and much loved routines to be abused, neglected and taken advantage of in some of the worst ways we could possibly imagine. Sadly, this kind of abuse takes place more often than we’d like to think. It is horrendous, defies description and is just plain wrong. If you think your senior loved one is being subjected to abuse, immediately call a Little Rock personal injury lawyer.
Our seniors are entitled to be treated with dignity, respect and deference. Many of our seniors fought in wars that gave us what we so blindly take for granted today – the freedom to be who we are and do what we do. These people were injured on our behalf, lost family members fighting to give us this precious freedom, and are now in need of our help and care in a nursing home.
Nursing home abuse is way too common and it has to stop. People must speak up and out about it. Every senior in a nursing home has family that loves and cares for them and only wants to ensure they are safe. If the family suspects something is wrong, that their elderly family member is being abused, hit, shoved, kicked, shaken, pinched or burned, they need to speak to a skilled Little Rock personal injury lawyer. While these examples mostly deal with physical abuse, there are other insidious forms of abuse that are known to stalk the halls of nursing homes.
Some of the other forms of abuse that attorneys tend to see and hear about are the inappropriate use of chemicals/drugs as a form of restraint or retribution; the use of tie downs or straightjackets; and other monitoring devices being used as punishment. In some cases, seniors have been left for long periods of time physically restrained and unable to move until someone came to free them. Force feeding someone who is unable to eat without assistance is abominable and definitely a form of abuse, as is pushing elderly patients to perform bodily functions that are difficult for them.
Perhaps the most despicable form of abuse in a nursing home is sexual abuse. While it sounds awful, unfortunately there have been cases of this happening. It’s very difficult for elderly people to be able to effectively resist someone forcing themselves on them. Very plainly, without putting a fine point on it, this is “wrong.” Non-consensual sexual contact is abuse and so is having sex with someone who isn’t able to give their consent to the act. Sexual abuse can take the form of assault, sodomy, rape, improper touching, nudity and even the resident being harassed into posing for sexual or nude pictures.
If sexual abuse isn’t enough, there have also been cases of mental and emotional abuse. Consider how hard it is for seniors to have to rely solely on others for assistance performing their daily living tasks. This causes a great deal of embarrassment for many seniors who used to be independent. The shame they feel at not being able to do basic tasks is something that some nursing home workers will exploit to their own advantage.
The list of other abuses is too long to cover in this article, so we highly recommend that if you feel your loved one is the victim of nursing home abuse, do the right thing and contact a Little Rock personal injury lawyer immediately. The longer the abuse is ignored, the more people who will be affected by it. Speaking up on behalf of your senior will make a big difference in how the other residents in a nursing home are treated. Know your rights and what to do about nursing home abuse.
Michael G. Smith is a Little Rock injury lawyer and Little Rock accident lawyer, practicing personal injury law in Little Rock Arkansas. To learn more about Little Rock injury lawyer, Little Rock accident lawyer, Little Rock person injury lawyer, Little Rock malpractice lawyer, Little Rock injury attorney, Little Rock wrongful death attorney, visit Arkansaslawhelp.com.
