What To Do If You Suspect Abuse

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I’ll begin this article with a personal story.

Many years ago, at age 16, I started working at my very first job as a nursing assistant in a nursing home. During one particular evening shift, I was working with two other nursing assistants who were a few years older than me.

As I walked down the hallway, I saw them talking with a resident who was diagnosed with what they then called “senile dementia”. One caregiver pointed out that the resident’s bald head was covered with wrinkles.

They giggled and call him “Pruney Top”. The teasing continued for a few minutes even though the resident was becoming annoyed.

This incident still haunts me to this day. Why? Because it represents emotional abuse, and I did nothing to stop it.

True, I didn’t take part. But I was just as guilty because I didn’t intervene on the resident’s behalf. And I didn’t report the abuse.

I don’t want this to happen to any of you as volunteers, or to the residents whom you serve. So, today’s article will remind us of the types of abuse and neglect that could exist in a nursing home setting.

Abuse:

• Physical Abuse

This type of abuse seems obvious. It might involve a staff member hitting, pinching, shaking, kicking, or shoving a resident.

However, physical abuse can also include the inappropriate use of restraints or drugs to subdue a resident. It also might involve forcing a resident to eat or drink something against their will.

• Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse means a resident is spoken to or treated in a manner that causes them to feel emotional pain or distress.

Examples include ridiculing, threatening, or scaring a resident. It also could mean unnecessarily isolating a resident from family or friends.

• Sexual Abuse

We usually think of this as nonconsensual sexual contact between two people. However, this could also mean consensual sexual activity if an individual is a vulnerable adult.

Other types of sexual abuse include taking sexually oriented pictures of a resident or forcing someone to watch a sexual act.

• Financial Abuse

This involves the exploitation of money, property, or assets of a resident for personal profit. Examples include forging a signature, coercing a resident into signing a financial document, or cashing a check without the resident’s permission.

Neglect:

• Physical Neglect

This happens when the nursing home fails to provide for the basic physical needs of its residents. Examples include failure to help with bathing, eating, or changing soiled clothing, or not providing a clean living environment.

• Emotional Neglect

Emotional neglect could mean that staff repeatedly ignore a resident’s requests. Or they might leave a resident alone for excessively lengthy periods.

• Medical Neglect

This type of neglect involves a nursing home not providing adequate medical attention to their residents. It might include not contacting a physician promptly, failure to offer an appropriate diet for a medical need, or not providing appropriate measures to prevent avoidable conditions.

• Neglect of Personal Property

Stealing property from a resident falls under this category. It also could mean using a resident’s possessions without their consent, or not taking reasonable care of a resident’s possessions.

If you believe social media, it sometimes appears that abusive and neglectful employees are running rampant in every nursing home across the country. I can tell you from over 40 years of personal experience with nursing homes that this simply isn’t true.

The vast majority of nursing home staff truly care about their residents. They would do nothing to harm them.

Unfortunately, the reality is that cases of abuse and neglect do exist. And it’s everybody’s responsibility to watch for it, stop it, and report it.

That being said, it’s also important to consider that not everything that looks suspicious is actual abuse or neglect. For example, a medical condition could cause bruises to develop on a resident’s arms. Or a resident who tells you somebody stole her purse might experience delusions because of a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

But, if you’re not sure, then you need to speak up. As the saying goes, “If you see something, say something.”

How to report suspected abuse or neglect depends on the laws in the state where you live and the policies of each facility. Therefore, I can’t give you a one-size-fits-all guideline on how to report suspected abuse.

Your orientation as a volunteer should include information on reporting abuse and neglect. If it doesn’t, or if you have questions, be sure to ask your supervisor.

 

Sadly, employees and volunteers who are experiencing burnout (or compassion fatigue) may be at higher risk to abuse a resident. Check out this previous post to learn the signs of burnout and what you can do to help prevent it.