You did the responsible thing. You found your mother a place where people are paid to care for her.
Now you can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong. You see bruises that nobody explains. The room smells different. Your mom becomes quiet and still whenever a certain aide enters. Trust your instinct. Nursing home abuse is real.
In fact, it’s more common than the brochures admit, and the people who commit it count on people like you to look the other way.
At Bey & Associates, we don’t look away. When a Georgia care facility puts profit ahead of the people it promised to protect, our Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyers step in to hold it accountable and get your loved one the safety and compensation they deserve.
If you have an elderly loved one in a facility and suspect abuse, neglect, or mistreatment, you can hire a lawyer to represent them, recover compensation, and move them somewhere safe.
A lawsuit does more than that.
It protects the other residents still living there, and it forces a negligent facility to change.
You can’t be there every hour. What you can do is learn the warning signs and pay close attention when you visit. If something feels off, it usually is. You know your loved one better than anyone.
Here are the most common forms of elder abuse:
One distinction matters. Abuse usually involves intent. Neglect is a failure of ability or skill. Either one can devastate your loved one, and either one is worth acting on.
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Even if you’re confident you’ve found a safe environment for them, it’s important to remember that there are negligent care facilities that abuse their residents.
Visit often and visit at odd hours. A neglectful home knows when families usually show up and can put on a good face for it. Come at an off time, and you’ll see what daily life there is really like.
Physical signs are the easiest to spot because they appear on the body. Watch for broken bones, cuts, bruises, dislocations, sprains, broken eyeglasses, signs of malnutrition or dehydration, and dirty sheets or clothing.
Falls deserve special attention. Many residents can’t walk safely alone and need help getting to the bathroom or across the room. In an understaffed facility, that help doesn’t come, so a resident tries it alone and goes down. The result can be a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury, or a broken hip, and a broken hip in an older adult can spiral fast into infection, pneumonia, and worse.
Choking is the same kind of story. Residents who struggle to chew or swallow need their food prepared safely, and when a home cuts corners, a meal can become dangerous.
Bed sores, also referred to as pressure wounds, rarely form unless staff are neglectful.
A resident who spends long stretches in a bed or wheelchair needs to be repositioned regularly and cushioned properly. Leave them in one position too long, and the skin breaks down. The open wound invites infection, and an untreated infection can kill.
Frequent movement, exercise, and skin checks prevent all of it.
Some forms of abuse leave marks you can’t see. A resident who is being mistreated may withdraw, go silent, or lose interest in the things they used to love. If your loved one seems fearful, less talkative, or won’t meet your eyes, pay attention.
It can also be a sign of overmedication. A chemical restraint, medication used to sedate rather than treat, makes a resident easier to control. This is abuse, and it is dangerous.
Too much medication can cause bad drug interactions, worsen existing conditions, and even lead to dependence and withdrawal once proper dosing resumes. You know what “normal” looks like for your loved one.
When their behavior stops matching it, something else could be going on.
Unexplained bank withdrawals or sudden changes to a will or power of attorney often mean financial exploitation. Watch the facility itself, too. Some pad the bill with unnecessary services or add-on charges.
If you notice these signs, call Georgia’s elder abuse hotline right away. They can help move your loved one to a safe place.
A lawsuit can reach past your loved one’s own recovery. It can force a facility to overhaul its policies and its people, so the next family doesn’t go through the same thing.
Every long-term care resident has rights under federal and state law. Federal law guarantees freedom from physical and mental abuse, from corporal punishment, from involuntary seclusion, and from restraints used for discipline or convenience rather than genuine medical need. It also guarantees the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
Georgia’s Long-Term Care Facilities: Residents’ Bill of Rights, set by the Department of Community Health, spells out the rest. Among a resident’s rights:
When these rights are ignored, residents and families can take legal action.
It won’t be easy. Most facilities are owned by well-funded corporations with serious legal teams, and going at them alone can be intimidating. That’s why you want an experienced Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyer beside you.
We’re ready to hold negligent facilities accountable.
If you suspect mistreatment, act. Here’s how:
When you meet with an Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyer from Bey & Associates, LLC, we’ll talk through how to protect your loved one’s rights and pursue full and fair compensation.
The process takes time, but it’s the surest way to get results.
When you decide to take action, we build the strongest case we can. That means:
The costs of abuse add up fast. These include hospital stays, surgery, a long recovery, ongoing care, and the price of moving your loved one to a safer home. We’ll assess all economic losses and ensure the compensation covers what your family actually needs.
Non-economic damages are harder to put a number on, but they matter just as much. They cover the pain and suffering, the loss of enjoyment of life, and the mental anguish of living in fear or in a home that failed to provide care. We’ll weigh how deeply the abuse affected your loved one’s daily life and fight for a fair figure.
You have two years to file under Georgia’s statute of limitations. Miss that window and the case is dismissed without review.
The sooner you call a lawyer, the better your loved one’s odds.
Sometimes abuse turns fatal. No family should learn that negligence killed someone they love. If it happened to you, a wrongful death attorney from our firm can find out what went wrong, hold the facility accountable, and give your loved one a voice while you grieve.
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