Last week, we detailed the categories that most cases of nursing home abuse and neglect fall into.  Today, we want to give you some information about what you can do to help protect your loved ones from abuse and neglect.

1. Don’t make your visits predictable.  Visit frequently, and at different times on different days.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about care.
3. Check for bedsores, unexplained bruises and sensitivity to pain.
4. Note the cleanliness of the residents and the facility.
5. Check for weight loss and/or dehydration
6. Keep a small journal for notes after visits.
7. Take your camera.  On each visit, heave your photo taken with your loved one, and date it.
8. Report any suspected abuse.

If, indeed, you do suspect abuse taking place in a nursing home or similar care facility, you may have different avenues  of legal recourse.  Contact Turner & Turner for a free consultation to discuss all of your legal options.

The Office of the Attorney General in Michigan has identified four categories that criminal abuse and neglect generally fall into:

1.  Harmful Neglect: A resident of a nursing home or residential health care facility may be suffering from harmful neglect if they experience:

• Suspicious or questionable injuries or death;
• Unexplained substantial weight loss or severe dehydration;
• Painful bedsores 

2.  Assault or battery is committed if an employee of a nursing home or residential care facility threatens or strikes a resident or uses unauthorized physical or chemical restraints

3.  Criminal sexual conduct occurs when an employee of a residential healthcare facility or nursing home engages in unlawful sexual conduct with a patient.

4.  Embezzlement or theft of a resident’s funds occurs when a nursing home or residential health care facility employee wrongfully removes funds from a resident’s account, improperly obtains a financial “loan” or “gift” from a resident, or uses personal information illegally to obtain credit cards, etc., resulting in identity theft.

Next week: Which facilities are subject
to investigation & ways to protect your
loved ones from abuse & neglect.

Ahhh, summer.  Days at the pool, ice cream cones, running through the sprinkler, neighbors chatting with each other…

Does the rising mercury outside have some kind of relationship with the amount of crime committed?  Quite possibly, according to many experts.

In many cities, studies of criminal behavior have shown a sharp increase in the number of crimes committed during the summer months, particularly during heat waves.

While most of us think of summer as a time for lazy days at the pool, ice cream cones, running through the sprinkler, chatting with your neighbor as you water the lawn, law enforcement officials are on high alert for what they have to deal with during these hot months, including domestic violence and aggravated assaults.

According to a CBS news report,  a 2010  study of violence in Cleveland from 1999 to 2004,  “hotter temperatures correlated to higher amounts of aggressive crime, especially domestic violence and non-aggravated assaults – attacks involving no weapon and no serious injury.

“If you plot crime and temperature together you get a straight line up,” said Dr. Scott Sheridan, the Kent State University professor who co-wrote the Cleveland study. “Some of the reason is increase in aggressive behavior, but a lot of it has to do with more people interacting with each other when the weather is warmer.”

A takeaway from this disturbing study?  All the more reason to keep cool, both physically and emotionally, when the temperature soars to the uncomfortable level it has been at for the last couple of weeks.