It’s devastating to find out that someone you love has been taken advantage of. It’s worse when they’ve been hurt by the very people who were supposed to protect them. Sadly, that happens often in cases of nursing home abuse.
One of the things you can do to help your loved one avoid abuse is to be present. There’s no hard and fast rule about how often you need to visit the nursing home, but it’s a good idea to visit regularly.
How often should you head to the nursing home?
There are some factors to consider. For example, does your loved one suffer from memory loss? If so, visiting regularly may help with that memory trouble. Some people visit their loved ones in memory care every day. Others visit a few times a week or once a week. Rarely, visitors come less often.
How often you visit will vary from others based on factors such as your work schedule, how close you are to the nursing home and how disruptive a visit is to the elder’s well-being. Overall, most people in memory care have improvements in their emotions and self-esteem when they have regular visits from those who love and support them.
There’s another reason to visit, too. If you don’t visit often, it may be harder to recognize or report abuse or negligence. You want to know that your loved one is receiving appropriate care, so visiting often can give you the time you need to observe and consider your feelings on how the nursing home treats your loved one.