When you hear the terminology elder abuse, you may envision an older individual being physically abused. That isn’t the only way elderly individuals are mistreated or taken advantage of, though. Financial, emotional, and sexual abuse all also fit into the broad category of elder abuse.

Elder abuse is an epidemic, whether one lives in a big city like Atlanta, GA or Cincinnati, OH or a smaller one like Macon, GA or Florence, KY. This type of ill-treatment or taking advantage of others occurs at the hands of nursing home staff, home healthcare aids, and others.

If the number of elder abuse cases like this that our Bey & Associates personal injury lawyers handle is any indicator of how prevalent this phenomenon is, then this mistreatment happens often.

Nursing homes exist so that your elderly loved ones can be taken care of to the fullest extent in the later years of their lives. Unfortunately, your family members are not always safe in their long-term care facilities and are more vulnerable to being exposed to different forms of harm. Some of the harm they could experience are actions like abuse and neglect, but they could also be easily introduced to diseases and infections.

While we expect our loved ones to receive the best care in their nursing home facility, this is not always the case. When neglect or abuse is present, the consequences can be severe and even deadly. One of the more common results of neglect is pressure sores. These develop when there is too much pressure on the skin. Discomfort, pain, and infection can quickly set in.

If you have a loved one in a long-term care facility, it’s a good idea to evaluate their health and wellbeing every time you visit them. If you are able to understand the causes and consequences of pressure sores, you’ll be able to assist in the prevention of them.

Placing your loved one in a nursing home means you’re trusting the home to take care of them and keep them safe. No one ever wants to hear that the nursing home has lost their loved one. But this can happen, especially in homes that don’t have enough staff to keep an eye on their residents or don’t have effective preventative safety measures to make sure residents don’t leave.

When a resident leaves their nursing home, it’s called elopement. There’s an increase in risk of injury or death and can be traumatizing for your loved one and you. This should never happen and you shouldn’t have to wonder if your loved one is safe. If you’ve ever had a loved one elope from their nursing home, you can explore legal options. An Atlanta nursing home elopement lawyer from Bey & Associates can help you get justice for your loved one.

When our loved ones need a higher level of care, whether they have dementia or are at risk for falling, we sometimes have to pick a nursing home as their new home. Nursing homes are supposed to provide excellent care along with ways for residents to enjoy an engaging lifestyle. Attentive nurses, regular exercise, and social activities all help seniors’ sense of wellbeing and leads to a high quality of life.

But this isn’t always the case. Nursing home residents can suffer from abuse that takes a serious toll on their health. Elder abuse can happen in many ways: Physical, emotional, financial, social, and more. If you think your loved one is a victim of elder abuse in Georgia, an Atlanta elder abuse lawyer from Bey & Associates can help. We’ll do all we can to get compensation for your loved one.

About 617 million people are 65 years old or older. With a large elderly population, the need for care communities is increasing. At some point, you might not be able to take care of an elderly loved one and decide to move them to a nursing home.

Some nursing homes don’t provide the best environment for their residents. Whether it’s due to understaffing or staff who are too rough with residents, nursing home neglect does happen.

If you find that a loved one has been abused or neglected in a nursing home in Atlanta, Georgia, know that you don’t have to deal with this alone. Bey & Associates handles cases like this and will help you and your loved one get justice. Our skilled nursing home neglect lawyers will protect your loved one and work to prevent this from happening at that nursing home again.