It is the worst fear of anyone who has had to place a parent or other senior loved one into a nursing home: abuse or neglect. When you place a loved one’s care into the hands of a facility, you are placing an incredible amount of trust in that facility to treat your loved one as you would. Unfortunately, that level of treatment is not always met, and seniors are left in vulnerable situations.

Seniors in nursing homes are open to different types of abuse or neglect. Some of the most common issues result from simply failing to properly monitor a senior and can result in:

• Falls
• Bedsores
• Wandering/elopement
• Dehydration
• Malnutrition

Beyond neglect, staff do abuse seniors physically and even sexually in some of the worst situations.

Why do these things happen? Nursing homes may:

• Under-staff for their actual needs
• Fail to adequately train staff
• Fail to properly conduct background checks of staff

Ensuring the safety of your loved one who is in a nursing home may involve immediately removing him or her to another facility as well as conducting a thorough investigation into possible neglect or abuse. If you have suspicions that your loved one is not receiving the level of care he or she deserves, reach out for help immediately.