Leaving your loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility is hard enough as it is, but finding that he or she has become a victim of an abusive resident or staff member is devastating. Assisted living abuse can come in a number of forms from violating an elder’s privacy to manipulating him or her to provide funds to a staff member for his or her own personal purposes.
Abuse isn’t always physical. Abuse can include things like emotional abuse or psychological abuse. Here are a few other things to know about elder abuse.
There are six kinds of abuse
While there are many situations of abuse with various factors, there are six primary categories of abuse to know about. These include:
- Physical abuse
- Psychological abuse
- Economic abuse
- Verbal abuse
- Identity abuse
- Sexual abuse
Each of these kinds of abuse can take place in assisted-living facilities. It may be resident-on-resident abuse or abuse between residents and medical staff members.
What should you do if you suspect abuse?
The first thing you should do is get your loved one to a safe environment, whether that means taking him or her to your home or to the hospital for physical injuries. Once your loved one is no longer in danger, you have the option to sit down and consider how to move forward. Most people will need to have a discussion with those running the assisted living facility to air their grievances. Following that, it’s possible to launch a lawsuit and to look into filing other claims to help protect those living at the facility as well.
