Nursing homes provide bedridden patients with the right support and medical assistance that they might need to combat their disease. Admitting your loved one in a nursing home can be a really tough and critical decision; therefore, you must only select the best one.
There are many different types of such neglects that you will need to watch out for before admitting your loved one. Here are some of them mentioned that you would need to be careful of.
- No Attention to Basic Needs
You will need to make sure that the nursing home you have selected caters to the basic needs of the elderly people in the most suitable way possible. The basic needs include the care of their food and daily meals, taking care of their ambulance, and basic necessities.
Making sure that their living space is clean and refreshing. Moreover, not providing enough water for the hydration of the elderly people is also a form of violation of their basic needs. If you have been in a nursing home where you faced such issues, you can get legal assistance to make them pay for any of the types of nursing home neglect.
- Leaving Patients With Mobility Issues Unattended
Another thing that you need to watch out for is abandoning people with mobility problems. There are many elderly people who depend on wheelchairs and walking aids for proper mobility. Leaving these people alone for a long time can not only make them feel alone but also poses a serious threat to their health.
Falls are one of the leading causes of death of elderly patients in nursing homes and it occurs due to a lack of proper care. About 20% of falls in nursing homes end up in serious injuries and can even be fatal. Therefore, always choose the one that provides the best service for elderly people.
- Delay in Calling the Relevant Doctor or Nurse
Another factor that can lead to elderly injuries and severe health problems for elderly people is not contacting the right medical professional in time. Many people experience an attack or face a medical emergency that requires immediate assistance from a doctor or a nurse, and if the management fails to do so, it can even turn out to be fatal.
Therefore, make sure that the nursing home that you have chosen has vigilant and well-trained staff members who can effortlessly handle these emergency situations and are trained enough to know when to call for immediate medical assistance.
- Not Attending Patients with Bedsores
Bedsores and pressure ulcers are very common in elderly people. You need to make sure that you’re selecting a nursing home that has professionals and paramedics to check and help elderly people detect and treat their bedsores.
When aged people keep sleeping or resting in the same position for a long time, they are prone to develop bedsores. The paramedics will change their position and help them overcome any kind of bedsores if they have any.
To prevent this situation, the management will change the bed sheets on a regular basis, change the position of the elderly people regularly and keep their bodies dry by providing them with dry clean clothes to wear.
- Ignoring the Hygiene
Hygiene plays a crucial role in determining the standard of nursing care centers. The care centers that put little to no emphasis on their hygiene should be cut off the list of potential nursing homes for your loved ones. You need to choose the one that offers the best solution in terms of hygiene and care.
Elderly people are unable to follow the right practices to keep themselves clean and hygienic regularly. They might need assistance in daily hygiene habits like going to the toilet, brushing their teeth, changing clothes and undergarments, and many more. You can also hire a private nurse for them in the same care center but there are many such centers that provide this service and do not charge any extra on their basic bill.
- Emotional and Social Neglect
This is one of the most common neglects that most elderly care centers are guilty of practicing. The emotional and social neglect. As a person becomes old, he becomes more irritable and looks for entertainment.
Many care centers forget these basic biological and psychological facts and continue to emotionally and socially abuse older adults. Some of them are not even able to report the abuse because of their medical condition or because of social discomfort. Therefore, it is imperative that you look for nursing homes that provide various fun activities for elderly people to stay engaged and refreshed.
Some of these centers also take the elderly people on a walk and other exercise programs on a regular basis, so they stay fit and connected to nature at the same time. It is better to select the ones to care centers with a view or garden than completely closed ones.
- Unsanitary Environment
An unsanitary environment is the biggest turn-off, for it shows that the nursing home staff pays little to no attention to healthy sanitary practices. It hints at their lack of consideration of hygiene as the basic necessity of elderly people.
The unsanitary condition will not only make the elderly people living there socially uncomfortable but can also affect their health in the long run. Choose a care center that pays great attention to the cleanliness of the room, self-hygiene of the staff, and the hygiene of the elderly people admitted there.
- Not Having an In-House Psychologist
Elderly people are very prone to falling into depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders because of the biological changes happening in their bodies and also because of a lack of social life. You will make sure that the nursing home you have chosen has an in-house psychologist who regularly has sessions with the elder community of the house to make them feel relevant, heard, and important.
When an elderly person becomes depressed, he becomes more prone to getting different diseases because his eating and living habits also change along with the state of his mind. Hence, it is imperative that you look for nursing homes having their own paramedic staff to look out for the people admitted there.
Grace