Serving Chicago, Surrounding Suburbs and all Surrounding Counties of DuPage, Will & Lake.
For a negligent nursing home facility or an abusive staff member, the most effective weapon in their arsenal is isolation. If they can keep a resident isolated from loved ones, if they can prevent the resident from speaking openly to visitors, then the abuse or neglect can continue.
This is one of the reasons it’s so important for you to frequently visit your loved ones in their nursing homes. You can catch nursing home abuse early if you have the opportunity to look for the proper signs.
If you’re looking for an experienced nursing home abuse attorney in the Chicago, Illinois area, please call the Sklare Law Group today at 312-759-1616
What To Look For
To be clear, nursing home abuse and neglect are always the fault of the abusers. Nothing that happens to a loved one in a nursing home is your fault, and you shouldn’t blame yourself. You can do everything right when choosing a nursing home, but all it takes is one abusive staff member to hurt your loved one.
But you want to catch such abuse early, both for your loved one’s sake and for the sake of everyone else in the facility. The earlier the abuse is stopped, the less severe the injuries suffered by your loved one might be.
Visit your loved ones frequently. And when you visit, look out for the following:
- Significant changes in your loved one’s personality. We all have our good days and our bad days, we all go through moods, but a dramatic change in a loved one’s personality, especially toward the quiet and withdrawn, might be a sign of trouble.
- If a specific staff member is constantly hovering around the conversation, even if you request privacy, it could be a sign the staffer is worried about what your loved one is saying.
- Make note of any significant purchases or unusual expenditures by your loved one. Financial exploitation is a serious issue in nursing homes.
- Look for the signs of physical abuse or neglect. These include bruises, bed sores or other unusual discolorations on your loved one’s skin.
- A dramatic loss of weight- this could be a sign of malnutrition, a serious problem in nursing homes
- The conditions of your loved one’s living space. Make sure it’s clean and sanitary. If it’s not, raise the issue with staffers.
Of course, the signs of abuse and neglect are sometimes subtle and hard to spot, and there are times when it’s nearly impossible for even a loving, vigilant family member to notice such neglect. In these cases, justice and compensation are the solutions- we can’t erase the past, but we can fight for your family.
If your loved one has been the victim of abuse or neglect in a Chicago, Illinois-area nursing home, please call the Sklare Law Group today at 312-759-1616 for a free consultation.
