No one who makes the tough decision to place a family member in a nursing home wants to imagine the nursing home doing anything to harm the residents who live there. Unfortunately, nursing home abuse is more common than a lot of people believe. It can be deceptively hard for even attentive and dedicated family members to notice that their loved one is being mistreated.
While a lot of factors can make nursing home abuse and neglect tricky to spot, the most significant one is that most people aren’t familiar with some of the more subtle symptoms that mistreatment in these facilities can produce. Here are warning signs of nursing home abuse in Blue Bell, which our experienced attorneys have seen in previous cases.
Possible Signs of Physical Abuse
It’s not hard to connect the dots if a nursing home resident suddenly starts sustaining black eyes, broken bones, and other injuries that are obvious at a glance. Usually, physical abuse in nursing homes is a lot less obvious and produces more subtle warning signs like:
- Repeated small injuries like scrapes and bruises, especially around the wrists and ankles
- Torn or bloodstained clothes or bed linens
- A significant decline in personal hygiene
- Unexpected hair loss
- Dramatic changes in weight
- Dramatic changes in mood or personality, especially if they happen around a specific staff member or other resident
- Damage to personal property
While it’s fortunately rare, physical abuse in nursing homes can sometimes be sexual in nature. Symptoms like sexually transmitted infections, bruises or bleeding in intimate areas, and spikes in anxiety or depression should not be overlooked either.
What Symptoms Can Emotional Abuse Result In?
Some of the possible warning signs of physical abuse in a Blue Bell nursing home can also be signs of emotional or psychological abuse—for example, weight loss, personality changes, and issues with anxiety or depression. However, some warning signs are unique to emotional abuse, such as:
- Reports from residents that they’re being shouted at, humiliated, or threatened
- Regression to childlike behaviors like thumb-sucking
- Noticeable exclusion from social activities
- Refusal by staff members to answer direct questions or allow visitors to be alone with residents
- Lost or missing personal items
- Withdrawal or refusal to talk to family members
It’s also worth keeping an eye on any financial accounts and estate plans held in a nursing home resident’s name. Unexpected changes to those accounts or plans may be indicators of financial abuse by nursing home staff members.
A Blue Bell Attorney Can Help Take Action Over Warning Signs of Nursing Home Abuse
Mistreatment in a nursing home can take many different forms, and because of that, it can produce a lot of different symptoms in each resident impacted by it. Knowing some of those warning signs of nursing home abuse in Blue Bell in advance can be key to proactively protecting your family from being mistreated in similar ways.
If your loved one has already experienced serious nursing home abuse, our attorneys can guide you through the process of removing them from danger and demanding compensation for the harm they’ve already sustained. Call today to discuss your options.
