I read a story the other day about an incident that happened recently in an Alabama nursing home. The daughter of one of the residents was finding unexplained bruises on her near 90-year-old mother. She started asking questions at the nursing home and got nowhere. So she made calls to state officials and got nowhere. What a shock getting nowhere in the bureaucracy!
The daughter decided to take matters into her own hands and installed a hidden security camera in her mother's room. As it turned out her mother died a few days later. It was only a few weeks after her mother's death that she had a chance to look at the video and what she saw made her sick to her stomach.
She saw her mom's caregiver at the nursing home repeatedly assaulting, abandoning and neglecting her mother. The caregiver was caught on video removing her mom's oxygen mask without authorization and hitting the victim repeatedly.
About two months ago in Cleveland, Ohio when a son was visiting his sick mother in a nursing home he happened to ask her mother about her medications. The mother pleaded ignorance and said that she didn't get any medications. When he asked the staff at the nursing home they of course confirmed that she was supposed to be getting medications
He was curious so he installed a hidden camera in the room to find out what was going on. He found that the attendant was pocketing the medications that were supposed to be given to his mother.
These scenes are repeated across the country in every kind of nursing home, long-term care facility, assisted living facility and others. Elder abuse has been documented to occur in six out of every 10 facilities that are supposed to care for seniors. Is also further been documented in a recent GAO report that nine of every ten nursing homes have employees with a criminal record.
Physical abuse is actually the easiest type of elder abuse to document because there are signs of physical trauma that can be investigated. Neglect and emotional abuse are much more difficult to document. That is why the slightest change in mental state or physical appearance should not be ignored.
The two best ways to prevent elder abuse are to install a hidden camera in the room and/or have family members and friends make frequent visits to the patient in the nursing home to keep a watchful eye on subtle changes.
Keep an eye on your elders in a nursing home with a hidden spy camera.