Self-Help

26

Learn the warning signs of neglect and abuse in nursing homes, group homes and family residences.

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Nursing Home Do’s and Don’ts

Nursing Home theft and abuse has become a growing concern across the country as underpaid employees continue to steal items of clothing, jewelry, and money. Because patients living in these kinds of facilities are most likely cognitively impaired or physically challenged, they forget what belongings are theirs. This opens the way for their possessions to become available to the thieves taking them. Since many states have laws that prevent a person’s personal belongs from being locked up or made unavailable, it helps make our elderly “ perfect victims.” In 1996, the Knight-Tribune News Service reported, “thieves often use Vaseline to ease wedding  rings off of the hands of sleeping patients. One case cited an eighty-six year old woman who awoke inconsolable one morning when she discovered her finger had been stripped of  her last two life’s mementos: a diamond ring inherited from her mother and the engagement ring her husband slipped on her finger during a romantic canoe ride. She was heartbroken!”Often, nursing home administrators will cover up for the employee doing the stealing by denying the theft occurred or by insisting  that their employees’ are honest; not dishonest. Because of this hear no evil, see no evil policy,  police departments are hardly ever notified or asked to get involved in such trivial things as a few missing blouses or pieces of jewelry. If caught, most employees are fired, but they are not forced to pay restitution. In fact; neither the facility or the victim’s families criminally prosecute the employee responsible. In July of 2001, CBS news reported a story about Helen Love, an elderly woman who was  attacked by a CNA at a Sacramento, Ca. facility because she soiled herself. “He choked me and went and broke my neck and broke my wrist,” said Love. According to reports, Love’s assailant received "a year in the county jail." Three additional employee’s employed by the same facility were convicted for abuse as well. However, none were prevented from working in another nursing facility.