How You Can Stop Senior Citizen Abuse

Senior citizens make up almost 34 million people in the United States. It is estimated that one in twenty of those senior citizens will end up needing some form of assisted living. This means that there are a wide range of home health aids and nursing home facilitators that are needed. With the rise of the demand on this type of work, nursing homes have gotten a certain amount of desperate in hiring staff to assist in this form of employment.

We hear about senior abuse and how to look out for it but most people do not even know what qualifies as senior citizen abuse. Senior citizen abuse can come in many forms and it is something that we all need to look out for when our loved ones have no choice but to have assisted living arrangements. Nursing home negligence, personal injury, and the death of senior citizens has been in a rising state. This has made many senior citizens and their families to become worried about their situation and what they can do about it.

There are lawyers who specialize in this field of work and there are also private investigators who can determine if such abuse has been occurring.

Abuse does not just come in a physical form. Abuse can be mental, sexual, physical, or financial. One of the most common forms of abuse for senior citizens is financial abuse. Financial abuse is caused when their finances have been tampered with by an unknown source. There are a number of people who have been on trial or suspected in tampering with a senior citizens finances. If you have a loved one who is in a nursing facility or has a home health aid, keep track of the finances and if you are the sole person who keeps track of the finances, you should pay close attention and ask for documents for your record on anything that has to do with the care that they are receiving.

Mental abuse is one that is hard to prove. Mental abuse comes in the form of the staff or anyone else that plays games with their mind, says inappropriate remarks or statements, calls them names, and ect. The reason that mental abuse is hard to prove is because most senior citizens do not tell someone or that person who is doing the abuse has not been caught by anyone else other than the one senior citizen. If you feel that this is going on you can ask that the person be removed from taking care of your loved one.

Sexual abuse has been known to happen and most often it is with a senior citizen who has a limited mobility or has become senile. There are signs that you can look for and keeping track of people who go in and out of the room will help you to determine who is doing the abuse. The tell signs are the same ones that you would look for in a child that has been suspected to have been abused.

Physical abuse is also another common form of abuse amongst senior citizens. Like I said before, physical abuse comes in many forms. Bed sores are the number one sign of physical abuse. Bed sores are caused by not moving and staying in the same spot for a matter of time. It is the job of the facility and its workers to make sure that the members are taken care of and receive the proper care that they need. If loved ones seem to be getting hurt often or have signs of bed sores, it is your duty to notify the person in charge of the facility so that they might investigate into the causes of this problem. If the problem is still not resolved, contact a lawyer who can help you to determine the cause and to see if your loved needs to be removed and if there should be restitution paid to the parties who are the victims.

Death is also another cause of abuse. All though death is not that common in the United States for senior citizen abuse, it does happen. If you suspect something suspicious has gone on and you want the answers that you deserve, an investigation can be done on the cause of the death. A coroner will not usually do an autopsy unless they suspect foul play.

There is nothing worse than a loved one being abused. There are laws against abuse towards a senior citizen and you should know your rights and what to do if you suspect that abuse is going on. Lawyers can help you to get the proper information that you need and they may even give you a pamphlet on the times of abuse and knowing your rights.