Richmond, KY Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Deciding to place your loved one in the care of a nursing home is not an easy choice. You likely made that choice because you can no longer provide them with the standard of care they need, and trust their nursing home can do that for them. Unfortunately, sometimes your loved one will not receive the standard of care they deserve at a facility either, and experience nursing home abuse or neglect.

Nobody deserves to receive poor care, especially not a sensitive population like the elderly. Our Richmond, KY nursing home abuse lawyer at the Law Office of Todd W. Burris is prepared to defend your loved one’s rights and handle your claim against the abusive facility that injured your loved one.

What Qualifies as Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect?

Most nursing homes and other long-term care facilities provide excellent care for their residents. However, that is not always the case, and sometimes factors like understaffing, long hours, and packed facilities lead to staff neglecting or even abusing their patients. It’s important to note that being unhappy with your loved one’s care does not always mean they are being abused.

For example, if your loved one has visitor restrictions, that likely doesn’t count as nursing home abuse. Sometimes facilities will limit visitation to keep all residents’ health in mind, like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing home abuse is when a resident’s physical, emotional, or financial well-being is put in jeopardy because of a staff member or facility’s negligence or recklessness.

Nursing home abuse can be committed through physical, emotional, financial, and sexual actions. Here are some of the ways a resident can be physically abused or neglected:

• Hitting, kicking, or pushing
• Using restraints
• Inflicting injury with an object
• Improper medication dosage or administration
• Malnutrition
• Improper hygiene, like neglecting to brush teeth or bathe regularly

Emotional abuse could be enacted in these ways that could hinder a resident’s psychological well-being:

• Insults
• Threats
• Isolating the resident
• Controlling behavior

If a resident is being financially abused, they might be experiencing scenarios like these:

• No access to their own bank accounts
• Missing money from accounts or cash
• Stolen bank statements
• Forged or stolen checks
• Forced to sign over the rights to their accounts

Finally, your loved one can be sexually abused by a staff member. A nursing home resident can be the victim of sexual abuse in their facility because staff members have control over them in their power dynamic, and if they are not fully cognizant from memory problems, then they can be manipulated and sexually abused.

All types of abuse are wrong, and nobody should have to endure that treatment. If your loved one has experienced abuse of any kind in their care facility, then a Richmond, KY nursing home abuse lawyer could help you get them justice for what they have suffered through.

How To Identify Nursing Home Abuse

It can be hard to tell if your loved one is being abused or neglected by nursing home staff, especially if you are not able to visit as much as you would like to. It’s important to speak to your loved one regularly if they are in a nursing home and encourage them to be open and honest with you so you can ensure they’re receiving the care they deserve.

But if your loved one is being abused, they might feel too embarrassed, ashamed, or scared to speak out. When you are able to visit, you’ll need to know the signs of nursing home abuse to know what to look for in your loved one to determine if they’re being mistreated. Here are some of the signs of the various different types of nursing home abuse:

• Unexplained bruises or broken bones
• Bed sores
• Poor hygiene
• Drastic weight loss
• Soiled clothes or bed linens
• STDs
• Withdrawn
• Depressed, anxious, or uncharacteristically quiet
• Missing funds

There are many more ways to spot that your loved one is being abused or neglected by their nursing home staff, but these are the main signs to look for. A nursing home abuse lawyer will be able to help you in a claim to ensure that the facility is held responsible for their actions.

Contact the Law Office of Todd W. Burris

When you suspect your loved one has been abused by the staff of their nursing home in Kentucky, then you are likely eligible to file a claim against the facility for their actions. An experienced Richmond, KY nursing home abuse lawyer from the Law Office of Todd W. Burris can guide you through the legal claims process and ensure that all necessary evidence is collected to prove that your loved one has been abused.

A nursing home abuse claim is too much to take on by yourself. Our personal injury lawyers know the care and attention to detail that these cases require and will be able to grant you peace of mind knowing that we are fighting for justice for your loved one. Contact our office today so we can get started right away.