When an elderly person in your family begins to need support, it’s vital for you and your family members to step in to protect them. One of the risks as they age is that they could be exposed to those who would abuse them or take advantage of them. Fortunately, you can take steps to protect them against this unfair treatment.
The following are three ways that you can help protect your elderly loved one, whether they’re living at home, in a nursing facility or elsewhere.
- Protection against financial abuse
To help protect your loved one against financial abuse, the first thing to do is to make sure you know who is around them and how their money is being spent. If you start seeing major withdrawals or your loved one starts saying that they don’t have enough money despite always having enough in the past, then it’s time to look into the issue.
- Protection against physical elder abuse
Whether in a nursing home or other facility, it’s important that you are familiar with the staff members or caretakers who will be around your loved one. It’s absolutely acceptable to ask for their background check information or to run your own search. You should also get to know these people, because being involved will reduce the likelihood of anyone taking advantage of the people you care about.
On top of this, you should keep an eye out for new bruising, changes in your loved one’s behaviors or actual comments about being hit or harmed in any way.
- Protection against verbal abuse
Verbal abuse is another issue that some elders have to deal with. Verbal abuse can be anything from a caretaker yelling at the individual to putting them down or degrading them. If you’re concerned that this abuse may be taking place, consider looking into security cameras or recording devices (where allowed) or speak with staff members and residents to find out if that is a problem in a medical facility where your loved one will be staying.
These are some of the things you can do to help protect your loved one from abuse. Be involved, and you will be more readily able to identify red flags.