Most people know about the trick of checking the batteries in smoke detectors when they set their clocks back. Well, how about a similar idea where you check the quality of care your loved ones in nursing home facilities and care centers are receiving each year when you see them for the holidays? To avoid nursing home negligence and abuse, it’s time to check in and monitors your loved one’s care.
Nursing home negligence and abuse can happen over the holidays
Some people in nursing homes are medically capable of being picked up to spend time with their families on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other holiday they celebrate. Other people need more help and their family gets to visit them inside their assisted living community.
Nursing home care is important to monitor to avoid nursing home negligence, abuse or death
Whatever your family’s situation is, stop in and spend some time in your elderly loved one’s home. Pay attention and look around for little clues. Are there people placed in wheelchairs and left in a corner for a few hours? Does a call button go off for 15 minutes before someone answers it? Does something just seem off? Nursing home negligence can take many forms.
You might think the staff will put on their best behavior when they know families will come by, but that’s not always the case. Family members drop by nursing homes all the time so many staff members won’t see the point of concealing something that was already out in the open.
Holidays often mean a skeleton crew is working, and when the safety of your mother, father, aunt, uncle, or other elder relative is at stake, don’t you want to know what things look like in the worst-case scenario? Emergencies can happen anytime.
Don’t forget to talk to your loved ones about their own experiences. Does the staff respond to requests? Are they happy there? Are their needs being met? What do they think?
One evaluation will not be enough, however. The quality of a nursing home can fall over time, so make sure you check back from time to time. The quality of care of your loved one depends on it.
http://www.slideshare.net/BostonPersonalInjuryLaw/nursing-home-nightmares
