Understanding Nursing Home Abuse: Guide for Families Belvidere, IL

Choosing to move family member to nursing home is the most tough and painful decision that can be made. To many elders, more extensive self-sufficiency is no longer plausible; thus, relocation to a facility that can offer the needed care becomes imperative. Despite the fact that most Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Belvidere IL provide the best care to the patients but sometimes that may lead to abuse and negligence. 

The Nursing Home Abuse

The abuse that residents of the nursing homes suffer is not always outward, or plain to the eye. Something that families must take their time and observe is their beloved ones who reside in nursing homes. It can be physical, psychological, or even financial and this is very important to understand when analyzing the topic. This way, recognizing abuse is easier as one can pay attention to these symptoms and act accordingly.

Kinds of Certified Nursing Home Abuse

Physical Abuse: This means anything like physical aggression, or using force on the residents or selfish behavior such as slapping, punching, kicking or restraining a resident. Symptoms may include skin discoloration or rashes, skin that is tender or warm to touch, swelling and/or bumps that appear and disappear, unusual bruises, broken bones or bleeding, bloody or cloudy urine, knick or scratch wounds that don’t heal as quickly as they should.

Neglect: While direct abuse can cause harm and injury, abuse by neglect might arise from carelessness, or inadequate supervision. Some of the symptoms include; the patient is dehydrated, newly admitted, and not well fed, the patient is on medication and has not taken the drugs as required or a patient has an illness that requires attention.

Emotional Abuse: This includes name calling, threatening, and/or excluding others in and from social networks. Cited signs of emotional abuse are crucial as they might be good and less recognizable as compared to physical abuse that might present symptoms such as depression, anxiety, or withdrawal from other people.

Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse is any unwanted sexual behaviour, for example, any improper sexual touching or sexual assault. This must especially be the case when practiced on elements of the community who are disabled.

Financial Abuse: This may involve cases whereby a staff member or another person who comes into contact with the resident embezzles money from the latter. For instance, it may involve forging of cheques or sometimes the theft of cash and other property, unauthorized gains from accounts, and altering of wills and other legal papers.

What to Do When Abuse Is Suspected

This confirms that if you observe signs of abuse, it is important to ensure that you take some appropriate action. Here are the steps you should follow:

Document Evidence: Document any cases of abuse through use of photographs of the injuries and proper writing of the incidents as observed with the staff you are dealing with.

Report to Authorities: Call the police and report to the local authorities or call the State’s Adult Protective Service. They could initiate an investigation concerning the facility.

How a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Can Help

Here are some ways they can assist:

Filing a Lawsuit: The attorney can advise you on how to launch a lawsuit on the nursing home. 

Advocating for Wrongful Death Claims: To achieve these objectives, this legal action aims at Claiming compensation for the loss to prevent similar negligence from happening to other people.

Providing Expert Advice: Hiring a nursing home abuse attorney allows you to have someone knowledgeable in dealing with this type of case, who can help point out the right direction to take to prevent further abuse and make a move towards bringing the legal action you need.

Pursuing Justice for Your Loved One

Another profound reality is that nursing home abuse is a real menace that can cause appalling physical and psychological injuries and fatalities. If you think that your loved one is vulnerable to or is already being abused in such a manner, the first thing that you should do is to act fast. At Clark Frost Zucchi, the team works hard to ensure they get justice for families in Northern Illinois through legal suits against nursing homes that harm patients.

Clark Frost Zucchi Contact Us Today Our dedicated team will strive and ensure that your loved one has every right they deserve and is protected. For a free case evaluation contact us today or complete the Nursing Home Abuse questionnaire on this site to start seeking justice for yourself or your loved one.