When older family members can no longer take care of themselves, or when you can no longer care for them in your home, you might choose to place them in a nursing home so that skilled staff can provide them with the care and attention they need. You likely do your research to determine which facility would be best for your loved one, but that doesn’t always keep them from poor treatment.
Even the facilities that seem the most helpful for your family member can end up treating them poorly. When this happens, you’re not helpless. Your loved one deserves justice for how they’ve been treated, an El Dorado nursing home abuse lawyer can help you get that. We’ll look into what happened and prove that they were injured by the people who were supposed to look after them.
Let’s take a look at the different rights your elderly loved one has in Arkansas so that you can identify when they’ve been violated.
Arkansas Nursing Home Residents’ Rights
When your older loved one decides to enter a long-term care facility, or when you help them make that decision for their best interests, you should know what rights they have when they’re there. You might think they lose some of their freedoms by living at a nursing home, but that’s not the case. Under Arkansas Law, they are afforded freedoms to ensure they are still in control of their lives and the care they receive.
There are many rights that your loved one has in their nursing home under Arkansas Law, but here are some of the most important rights you should be aware of. A long-term care resident has the right to:
- Be fully informed of their rights and responsibilities as a resident
- Know all the charges they will incur
- Choose their own physician and pharmacist
- Be fully informed of their health status and medical conditions
- Refuse treatment
- Voice any grievances or concerns about the facility
- Exercise their own religious beliefs
- Manage their own finances
- Be free from any kind of abuse
- Be free from physical or chemical restraint
- Privacy for personal needs and with visitors
- Participate in activities inside and outside of the facility
- Keep their personal possessions
- Live in a clean environment
These are just the basic, most essential rights that are listed for residents in El Dorado, and there are many more that must be followed so that your elderly loved one maintains their freedoms inside their nursing home. If you feel like any of their rights might have been violated, you should first speak with your family member and then with the staff.
If they don’t help you resolve the issue, then you might have grounds for a claim. One of our El Dorado, AR nursing home abuse lawyers can help you and your loved one defend their rights and get them justice.
Signs of Abuse in Elders
Now that you know the rights of your loved one in their long-term care facility, you should know the signs that could mean your loved one is experiencing some form of abuse in their nursing home. Abuse can be hard to spot if you don’t know the signs to look for. When it comes to abuse, there are different signs for different types, but many of them overlap.
The different kinds of abuse that your loved one could experience are physical, mental, financial, and sexual. Here are some of the signs of one or more of these different types of abuse so that you can better identify when your family member isn’t being treated with the care they deserve in their El Dorado long-term care facility:
- Dirty clothes
- Unclean room
- Poor hygiene
- Malnutrition and dehydration
- Bed sores
- Unexplained bruises
- Unexplained broken bones and other injuries
- Changes in mood
- Unusually distant and anti-social
- Unexplained STDs
- Unexplained missing money
- Missing valuables from their room
The best way that you’ll be able to notice these changes in your loved one is by visiting them regularly. If you are having trouble determining if they’re being abused, you can speak with other residents and their families to see if they’re experiencing similar treatment.
Unfortunately, if abuse is occurring, you might have trouble speaking with your loved one alone. If a staff member seems to be hovering during your visit, then your loved one could be experiencing abuse and being intimidated into not speaking up. In that case, you’ll need to be vigilant and stand up for your loved one.
When you hire one of our El Dorado, AR nursing home abuse attorneys, you can have peace of mind knowing we will investigate all aspects of your loved one’s stay in their facility. We will defend their rights and get them compensation for any injuries and damages that they suffered as a result of their abuse.
McMath Woods P.A. Is Here for You
When your loved one is experiencing mistreatment at the facility that is supposed to be caring for them, it can leave them feeling vulnerable. They might even have a hard time standing up for themselves. That’s where our El Dorado, AR nursing home abuse lawyers come in. We’re here to defend their rights and ensure that their facility is held responsible for their subpar care.
At McMath Woods P.A., we know how difficult a legal endeavor can be for you and your family. We understand that it can feel like a huge undertaking, especially when you’re trying to make sure your loved one is safe and no longer experiencing abuse. That’s why we’ll cover the legal side of things so that you can focus on taking care of your elderly family member.
We will investigate what happened, gather all of the evidence we need to prove the abuse, and then calculate the damages your loved one experienced so that they can get full and fair compensation for what they’ve endured. Reach out to our office today so that we can get started on your potential claim.
