Elderly Abuse and Neglect – What Should You Do?

As your parents needs grow more demanding as they age, it is not always possible for you to care for them at home; often times they can get the best care in an assisted living center or other type of elderly care facility.

Unfortunately, even though these places are full of very giving and caring individuals who work there, every once in a while there is an exception and one of your elderly loved ones may have been the victim of an abusive situation. When this happens there are some courses of action you can take if you notice any signs of elderly abuse on them when you go to visit them.

Report the Incident to the Care Facility Management Team

The most prudent course of action, especially if you have had a long history of good care from the facility, is to report the incident to a member of the facilities management team or to the administration of that facility itself.

There will most likely be some quick results to keep the abuse from happening again because the employees will face increased scrutiny as they go about doing their jobs and do it right once they know ‘big brother’ is watching.
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Move Your Loved Ones to Another Place

This one is the best course of action if you feel the abuse to your loved one is not an isolated incident and you have seen signs of it before. If you really care for someone you certainly want to do everything you possibly can to keep them from being abused again. Just don’t forget that after you move your elderly loved one, you have a duty to make sure you inform the previous elderly facility about what you suspect was going on as it may prevent the same thing from happening to another patient at that facility. Once you’ve made the decision to move your loved one, you have to think about your next steps. Would your loved one rather live at home with regular visits from Assisting Hands – Serving Boca Delray to help them around the house? Would they prefer to live in a care home? Have a chat with them and see which option they would prefer.

Seek Legal Help

If you feel the abuse has been done repeatedly or is severe in nature, you have every right to pursue the matter legally to seek retribution for your innocent loved ones who were harmed. You can do such things as press criminal charges if you know who the abuser was or you can alert the police so they can investigate the matter further.

You may also want to seek restitution for financial damages in the matter too. Elder abuse lawyers such as Garcia Law are excellent at litigating these types of cases.

Put Some Hidden Surveillance in Their Room or Living Space

There are times you may not be sure if your elderly loved one hurt themselves or if it was a result of abuse from a staff member or another person. It is important to determine which one is correct so you will then know how to stop it from happening again and what the appropriate steps to take are. Placing hidden cameras around their living space is a great way to go about doing this.

No matter how you decide to protect your loved ones, it is important that you do it right away to keep them safe.