Elder Malnutrition
How do you square it off? If you have a great health care provider, how could your kin be suffering malnutrition? After all, any elder abuse lawyer in California will tell you good care won't include malnutrition right?
When an elderly family member is in a Los Angeles nursing home, we expect them well fed and happy, right? Families simply assume their aged kin will get the proper care.
After all, nursing care is expensive. But they are dead wrong that money means good care.
- Nursing homes, ironically, are often run by people who take a Hippocratic Oath.
- Unfortunately, inferior to no feeding is something that does occur.
- More than anything, the failure of the nursing home to detect and address malnutrition is neglect.
Most of all, this is part of the personal care that should get given to each resident of the nursing home.
IMPORTANT: Any sign of weight loss in a senior citizen should raise red flags. Last, this article discusses the signs and symptoms of malnutrition of elders. Further, it does so from a personal injury attorney’s perspective.
What are Some Classic Symptoms of Elderly Malnutrition?
Signs of malnutrition of seniors should become recognizable immediately by trained nursing home employees immediately. After all, non medically trained family members may think it is a normal sign of aging, as opposed to a sign of neglect. After all, malnutrition can be a normal part of aging for some people.
- But alas, caregivers have a responsibility to prevent starvation whenever possible.
- Also, they are also obligated to inform the family of the problem and cause when unavoidable.
Hence, if this is a hidden, unreported condition, we have a problem.
- Red flags come up when the caretaker fails to alert the family. So this is a source of serious trust and medical concern.
- Failing to tell the family can mean that the malnutrition is not due to a medical condition in the older adult.
- In fact, covering it up in and of itself can be evidence of a state of neglect. So the caretakers need to be accountable for this inaction. After all, they must protect the older person’s health and well-being.
Finally, the question then becomes just “who is responsible?”
Are Nursing Care Facilities Required to Assess Nutrition?
Yes, they are! Nursing homes must provide good elder and dependent care. Mostly, this includes assessing the nutrition of each of their residents.
So nursing homes must assess the nutritional needs of their inhabitants. Finally, they must provide healthy meals and snacks.
Elderly malnutrition can have multiple causes. These can range from:
- Diminished appetite
- Lack of healthy food
So if your loved one's condition is not for medical reasons or natural aging process, providers are on the hook for your money damages.
Nursing homes can be made to pay for their indiscretions by first contacting superior Los Angeles, elderly abuse attorneys. Nursing home malnutrition is a serious concern in a nursing home setting.
- Failure of the attending facility to provide proper supervision of residents is unlawful. Those who provide nutritional services that fail can invite judicial and administrative review.
We discussed the signs and symptoms. Also, discussed were evidence of abuse and neglect. When it occurs in a fostering lodging, it may also be a sign of reckless abandonment.
Hence, it should be a reason to hold people watching over patients accountable when starving seniors. So there had better be a medical reason why it has occurred. Good elder and dependent adult care do not include malnutrition.
Also, skilled and experienced attorneys can assist neglected families. Ehline Law Firm is such a firm of attorneys, and you can reach them now at (213) 596-9642.