The elderly population the United States is already high and is estimated to rise significantly by the year 2020. Although modern and medical advances have taken great strides towards prolonging life, in many cases lifesaving medical procedures fail to allow the patient the capacity for an independent existence. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and the other organizations which care for the older population are often over-populated with patients while simultaneously under-staffed and under-funded. For this reason, many employees in elder care institutions are underpaid, undervalued and overworked and this makes their older dependent patients more vulnerable to exploitation, neglect and abuse.

Elderly abuse is a serious situation that is often a difficult to recognize, both because it is frequently emotional or mental and therefore difficult to detect and because some of the elderly population may be somewhat compromised in their cognitive functioning and it is hard to determine what is imagined and what is real when they report abuse. Additionally, many family members and loved ones are painfully ambivalent about relinquishing the care of their loved ones to a nursing home and nursing home staff, and may enter into a form of blindness or denial as a coping mechanism for dealing with their very real emotional anguish and financial distress.

For the reasons listed above it is always better to be safe than sorry, and treat any signs or complaints of abuse as serious and real. The elderly can experience emotional abuse in the form of insults, threats or neglect which may be indicated by social withdrawal, unprecedented self-deprecation, personality changes, bedsores, unexplained weight loss or dehydration and, of course, verbal complaints by the elder individual. The elderly may experience physical abuse which can be indicated by bruises, cuts and other unexplained marks on the body as well as unusual secrecy or avoidance of certain subjects in conversation, all of which are tell-tale signs of negligence on behalf of the nursing home and their staff members. Finally, an elderly resident of a nursing home may experience financial abuse in the form of stolen property, embezzlement or identity theft so it is important to keep track of all of your loved one's personal items and financial records for evidence of theft.

Accidents can happen and are not in and of themselves in illegal, but if you are fairly sure that a loved one has been the victim of some form of elder abuse then it is important to contact a personal injury lawyer familiar with Elderly abuse and neglect to help properly document and proceed with any legal actions that may be necessary.