When people hear of the term “nursing home abuse,” their thoughts are often immediately turned to cases of elderly patients being physically abused at the hands of a caregiver. However, nursing home abuse has many different facets including sexual abuse, emotional abuse and even financial abuse. While many families go to extensive efforts to arrange the highest quality of care for their elderly loved ones in Kentucky, it is imperative that they are aware of the signs of abuse so they can take action immediately upon recognizing a red flag.
One lawmaker in Pennsylvania is pushing to eliminate the ability of nursing home providers to also assume the responsibility of managing the finances of any of their residents. He claims that when providers have unsupervised access to the financial accounts of their residents, that there is a higher risk of participation in fraudulent activity at the expense of the people they are supposed to be caring for.
To illustrate the seriousness of the issue, the lawmaker disclosed a case in which a man who he was associated with, had entrusted his financial management to someone who was a staff member at the care facility where he was housed. After trusting the staff member with the management of his money, the elderly man was bilked of $100,000. The lawmaker described how financial abuse is just as dangerous and hurtful as other forms of elder abuse and expressed his concern that unless something is done to prevent it, the growing number of elderly people in the nation could be facing preventable risks.
If people are concerned about the care and well-being of their loved ones who are in the care of a nursing home facility, they may benefit from working with an attorney. Legal professionals may be able to help establish a case by collecting evidence of the concerns that have been brought to their attention.
Source: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, “Bill would forbid nursing home employees from serving as patient guardians after man bilked of $100K,” Marty Stempniak, Mar. 12, 2019