Abuse in Nursing Homes Essays

Abuse in Nursing Homes Essays Abuse in Nursing Homes Essay Abuse in Nursing Homes Essay Imagine being told every day when or when you can’t eat, there’s a set time for bed and you’re not allowed to leave your home without a family member. What if you were confined to 4 walls and a set of windows and when you needed something you had to wait and ask someone to get or do it for you? What if you were forced to do things you didn’t want to do? What if you were beaten, sexually, and verbally abused for simply saying no or not doing what someone says? How would you feel? What would you do? For thousands of Elderly people in nursing homes, this is their daily routine. Today I will be talking about the 3 most common types of abuse in nursing homes; abuse, mistreatment and neglect. I will show examples of these types of abuse and also ways to prevent and how to report it. The dictionary defines abuse as to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way. There are also 2 different types of abuse; mental and physical abuse. Abuse includes, but it not limited to striking, hitting, kicking, punching, throwing an object, spitting, burning, pulling on a part of a resident’s body, or any form of retaliation for a resident’s behavior. Here are some examples: The next type of abuse is mistreatment. Mistreatment is more appointed towards the nurses in the elderly care facilities. The types of mistreatment elders in nursing homes would come into contact with would be exceeding a resident’s prescribed dosage of medication, using restraints as a form of retaliation rather than being put into place for a safety device, or keeping a resident confined to a closet, locked room or other enclosed area against their will. Although these are looked down upon and are illegal there are some ways that these can be used without being illegal such as; a court authorizes the medication, isolation techniques or restraints must be used or when the treatment is necessary to prevent the resident from engaging in behaviors that may be harmful to them or others. The last and final type of abuse is neglect. Neglect is the failure to provide treatment or services necessary to maintain the health or safety of a resident. Types of neglect are; failure to provide medical, dental, nursing, physical therapy, pharmacy, psychological, speech or other treatments or services, failing to carry out care plans or specific treatments or failing to provide safety measures. One of the most common types of neglect is not answering call bells or bathroom lights, an example of this is; A nursing assistant assists a female resident to a bathroom and tells her to call when she is ready to return to her room. The resident rings the call bell for five minutes and no one comes to answer it. Frustrated, the resident tries to get into her wheelchair by herself, and falls and fractures her hip. Here are some pictures of neglect. Although there are a lot of ways elders can be harmed it is preventable. Reporting abuse, mistreatment, and neglect is one of the easiest things you can do to stop abuse. Everyone can report abuse even your co-workers if you work in a facility. If you report any type of abuse it is anonymous you will not be in any sort of trouble for reporting abuse and you probably will save lives. If you find yourself in a situation where you may harm a resident, walk away. You can also call for help, get some fresh air or organize support groups. you are not alone. In conclusion elderly abuse in nursing homes is a big problem in elder services. I have shown you the 3 most common types of abuse and examples of them. Also I have shown you ways of reporting and dealing with a situation if you think you may harm anyone. Just think, would you want any of your family members looking like this? (Show picture) Then help educate, prevent and report abuse, mistreatment and neglect before this (show picture) happens.