Older adults with memory issues, including dementia, often need special care in nursing homes and similar facilities. Long-term care facilities often have locked memory wards for those who struggle to manage daily life or understand their circumstances.
Those specialized facilities within nursing homes help protect older adults from elopement, which is the technical term for them leaving the facility without anyone knowing or assisting them. Nursing homes also need to make efforts to prevent wandering within the facility, which can also potentially endanger older adults with dementia and other cognitive deficits.
Why is wandering dangerous?
The living or resident spaces of a nursing home are meant to be safe and easily accessible for people with mobility challenges. However, the staff areas of the facility may have stairs, dangerous equipment and physical characteristics that put people at risk of injuries.
Wandering within a nursing home can put people at risk of serious injury and illness. For example, last year, there was a report of an older gentleman who wandered inside a nursing home and ended up trapped in the walk-in freezer. The protracted cold exposure he experienced caused his death.
Wandering incidents within nursing homes can lead to illness, serious injury, psychological trauma or even death. Nursing homes need to monitor the support requirements and cognitive capacity of older adults to ensure they receive the support they need.
When nursing homes fail to prevent wandering or elopement, their inability to manage residents’ needs could constitute negligence. Documenting wandering incidents and reviewing them with a lawyer can help families help to hold facilities accountable for unnecessarily endangering vulnerable older adults.
