Elderly Over Medicating – Is it Abuse?

Elderly Over Medicating – Is it Abuse?

This is one of the forms of abuse that can go on in nursing homes and assisted living centers. There are many types of abuse and this is one of the most difficult to discover and debilitating to the senior citizen being over medicated. This can occur due to adverse affects from medications that do not interact well together, or because of too many drugs prescribed for the senior.

Nursing homes and assisted living centers across the country use medications for their elderly residents, this includes Los Angeles, California. The outcome is more than 38 million cases of elderly Americans that suffer from drug complications each year. When over medication occurs in the nursing home setting it changes the senior’s mental and physical health and is a type of nursing home abuse.

Giving the elderly person too much medication or too many drugs it can have consequences that result in severe personal injury or even wrongful death. The medical professionals at nursing homes in cities like Coto de Casa, San Clemente and Laguna Woods, are responsible for giving your loved one the proper medication.

Choosing the right personal injury attorney in places like Brea and Yorba Linda, is important; this is an attorney that uses experts to review the medical history of your family member and will be able to find out if they have been or still are being over medicated. This can allow the nursing home or assisted living center senior to begin recovering from this type of nursing home abuse they were subjected to.

One of the nursing home abuses in over medicating can restrain the elderly and prevent them from having the type of life they normally would be able. The doctors, nursing staff and the assisted can be held responsible for their actions and the injuries they have cause, which can help the over medicated victim recover.

Over medicating the elderly family member is dangerous; the symptoms from these combined drugs can lead the doctor to prescribe other medications or more medications when under the belief these are symptoms from medical conditions. There are some symptoms that are common in the over medicated senior and that can mimic other conditions:

• Confusion

• Memory loss

• Fatigue

• Pain

• Abdominal pain

• Swelling

There are injuries that can occur from the senior being over medicated or taking too many prescriptions, this can make walking or standing, and eating almost impossible, along with other types of daily activities. There is also the danger of falling and other injuries when the prescriptions interfere with the person’s balance.

SOURCE:    Elder Law - Phoenix Blog
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