Nursing home abuse: Is anxiety a sign of poor care and neglect?

Many people in Virginia Beach do not realize the importance of monitoring their elderly loved ones for anxiety and other mental disorders, especially if a loved one lives in a nursing home and suffers from medical conditions. Anxiety does not always develop from medication or old age. Anxiety often coincides with feelings of pain, trauma, abuse and danger, and it is common in people who live in long-term care residences. Those who end up in nursing homes often require assistance with daily needs and medication or suffer from diminished cognitive functions. This also makes them extremely vulnerable to anxiety in care facilities and nursing homes where abuse and neglect may occur.

Spotting the signs of abuse and neglect is not always easy when dealing with those with anxiety or depression. However, such signs can help family members pinpoint hazards or actions that endanger their loved one’s life and well-being. Here are a few issues that anxiety can highlight in nursing homes:

Pain and neglect

Not all nursing home residents experience pain, and those who do may have medical conditions that cause it. Nursing home staff must provide the necessary support to nursing home seniors, that includes taking proper measures to reduce and prevent pain and improve overall comfort. Some caregivers neglect their patients, causing them to experience pain from bedsores, abuse and falls.

Preventable accidents and infections

Supervision is a necessity in long-term care homes to prevent issues that can compromise resident safety. Unsupervised falls, physical and verbal abuse and problems with medication administration and even life-threatening infections such as sepsis are a few consequences that nursing home residents encounter with negligent staff.