March 13th, 2019 | Updated on February 13th, 2024
Nursing and other social and care units are considered as a safe haven for most of the elderly individuals or people with mental problems.
They are supposed to be treated with specialized care and compassion.
Moreover, dignity and respect should form some of the most important values that should be accorded to nursing home residents.
However, at times, this does not happen and incidents of nursing home’s abuses are at all-time high.
Physical abuse has been considered as one of the leading acts of abuse that most of the nursing home residents experience.
However, recent reports show that mental abuse in nursing homes is on the rise.
It is heartbreaking to find out that people who are already dealing with extreme cases of mental disorders and physical challenges are subjected to mental abuse.
Nursing homes need to provide a conducive environment where all the residents can live in peace of mind and find everything in plenty so that they can enjoy their lives.
This is the reason as to why a huge number of families consider taking their loved ones to nursing homes.
However, the prevailing incidents of mental abuse confirm the fears that many people have, while at the same time justifying the critics of nursing homes.
Strom & Associates indicate that you need to fight back through professional and experienced lawyers if your loved one has been injured or hospitalized while at the care of a nursing home.
Besides, you need to understand some of the mental abuse that your loved one could have experienced. Some of the commonly reported types of mental abuse have been discussed in this piece.
1. Verbal Degradation
Most of the nursing homes’ employees offer kind words of encouragement and compassion to the residents.
This is what most of the nursing homes should be enforcing and everyone joining as a support staff should accept this is the standard.
However, some employees have been reported to yell and scream at nursing home residents.
Others have been reported to have directed sarcastic remarks to the residents, while at the same time ridiculing them due to their inability to handle their health challenges.
2. Emotional Manipulation
It is very hard for most of the nursing home’s residents as they have to depend on other individuals to help them perform some duties that they used to perform for themselves.
This makes them insecure and vulnerable to emotional manipulation by the nursing homes’ staff.
Most of the nursing homes’ residents are people who have lost their independence and they can only depend on caregivers for their well-being.
Most of them experience low self-esteem and they might feel tortured to a point where it becomes difficult for them to ask for basic provisions like drinking water.
3. Emotional Threats
Some nursing home residents have been kept in a manner that they don’t have any chance of expressing what they have in their minds and hearts.
For example, a huge number of nursing homes’ residents have reported abuse cases being done to their peers, only for them to be silenced. This inflicts emotional threats and they may feel that they could be the next victims.
Immediately one joins a nursing home, they realize that they are in a position of disadvantage and that most of the emotional aspects would not be addressed.
This has led to a situation where many nursing homes’ residents have secretly left the nursing homes as they have the fear of becoming victims of the ongoing emotional threats.
4. Verbal Threats
For a long period, a significant number of nursing homes’ staff members have been accused of verbal threats.
It is the most common aspects of mental abuse and is considered to be more severe than verbal degradation.
Telling nursing homes’ residents that they would get spanked for eating sloppily or soiling their beds amounts to verbal threats.
Any form of utterance that can be interpreted as a verbal threat should be avoided as it could amount to mental abuse among residents.
Health Disclaimer :
Information provided by Newszii.com does in no way substitute for qualified medical opinion. Any text, videos or any other material provided by us should be considered as generic information only. Any health related information may vary from person to person, hence we advice you to consult specialists for more information.