Placing your elderly loved one into a nursing home can be one of the most difficult decisions you could have to make in your adult life. No matter how much research and care you take in making sure the home is the right fit for your loved one, you could still make a mistake and place them in a facility where they get mistreated.

You can’t be there with them every minute of every day, which is what makes it more difficult. You can’t protect your loved ones at all times, and you can’t keep watch over them to ensure they’re being treated correctly at all times either. When you are there, you can be vigilant to make sure that if they are abused, you can witness it and make a report.

Your loved one deserves to be treated with respect and maintain their dignity even though they are no longer able to care for themselves. When you and your family member make the decision to move them to a nursing home, you expect them to get the level of care that you would provide for them. If they don’t receive that level of care, it could mean more is happening than just general bad practices—they could be experiencing abuse or neglect.

Nursing homes are supposed to provide your loved one with the full-time care that they need. Most times, the staff and other residents are great and your loved one is in the best hands. But sometimes, they are not, and your loved one suffers from nursing home abuse. In fact, one in six residents experience some form of abuse in community settings, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

When your loved one is being abused at their long-term care facility, you might be hesitant to report because you don’t know who to turn to. Reporting the abuse is important so that your loved one can get justice and so the abusers cannot cause harm to anybody else. A nursing home abuse lawyer from the Law Office of Todd W. Burris will ensure that your loved one is supported and is treated fairly through their case.

Residents in nursing homes often need around the clock care. While those in charge of care may face certain challenges, this never means they can violate the residents’ rights. For example, when taking care of residents with dementia or other forms of memory loss, the resident can become confused or agitated. Acting out verbally and physically are both situations the staff may have to deal with. However, this doesn’t allow the staff to cause any harm to the resident. Sometimes, some nursing homes resort to using restrains to stay in control of the resident. While there may be some situations where retrains may be used to protect the resident from harm, there are many ways that a nursing home can use restraints that are in violation of the resident’s rights.

If you’re concerned about your loved one’s treatment in a nursing home, seek help immediately. Your loved one deserves to be in a safe environment where they’re getting the care they need. Then, you can start seeking your legal options with a lawyer at your side.

As the number of residents in nursing homes rise, the amount of staff either stays the same or lessens. This makes it nearly impossible for you or your loved one to get proper care in a long-term facility. Even though you expect all basic needs to be met, that’s not always the case.

Nursing home staff has a hard enough time meeting the minimum of basic needs for all patients, and dental hygiene can be no different. Other parts of care are prioritized above oral care, which leaves many teeth unbrushed and unattended.

Falls in nursing homes are a frequent problem. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported as many as 20% of nursing home falls resulted in serious injuries, up to 6% caused fractures. In the same report, the CDC estimated 3 million people 65 and older will live in nursing homes by 2030. By those numbers, at least 600,000 will be seriously injured by falls in a nursing home in the future. A resident will fall on average 3 times per year, including people who cannot walk. We put our trust in long-term care facilities to take care of our loved ones, so why are there so many falls?

It’s no secret that understaffing in nursing homes is a serious issue in the United States. Understaffing happens for a number of reasons, including a high employee turnover rate and facilities trying to save money. There, however, is never any reason that excuses poor care. If your loved one’s nursing home facility is understaffed, there are steps you can take to ensure they receive the care they need.

Putting the care of our loved ones in the hands of others is a big step requiring a lot of trust. Even though nursing homes are supposed to nurture residents, not all facilities provide high-quality care and unfortunately Kentucky’s best facilities have waiting lists for admittance. But that shouldn’t keep your loved one from getting attentive, adequate care. No facility should neglect its residents.

When a nursing home fails to care for their residents, that negligence can result in injuries and illness. Because senior citizens typically have more compromised immune systems and it’s harder for them to recover, negligence can also cause death. One of these types of injuries that can severely affect a senior’s life is pressure sores, which are also called bedsores.

If you find that your loved one has suffered from these injuries, they need to get treatment immediately. How and when do bedsores commonly develop? Let’s take look at the causes and risk factors of developing pressure sores in a nursing home:

Nursing home abuse is a serious and underreported issue. According to the National Council on Aging, one in 10 seniors is abused every year; however, it’s estimated that only every one in 23 cases is reported. The lack of reporting happens because victims often refrain from reporting incidents out of feelings of fear or guilt.

In order to stop instances of nursing home abuse, the government has a number of nursing home regulations in place. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has a number of programs that strive to identify nursing home abuse and protect elders. If you have a loved one in a nursing home, it’s important to understand what the government is doing to protect them, so you can take legal action in the event their rights are violated.