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Nursing home elopement, also called “wandering,” refers to a resident leaving the facility without notice to staff members. Yes, nursing home residents can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of nursing home abuse. Understanding PTSD PTSD is a disorder that may develop after a person witnesses or lives through a shocking, terrifying, or dangerous event.
If your elderly loved one is in a nursing home, make sure to ask how their staff recognizes elopement risks, and how the staff monitors their residents. If a nursing home resident suffers from dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other mental or emotional conditions, they may not understand that they must stay at the nursing home and attempt to leave. They may feel a sudden urge to visit a friend, feed a pet they had as a child, or get back to a former place of employment. Any resident that has a mental or emotional condition that would prevent them from understanding that they should remain on the premises should be on an enhanced watch by the nursing home staff.
Elopement: Is it Nursing Home Neglect?
Nursing home staff members should check in with their patients several times daily. High-risk areas such as cafeterias or courtyards with heavy foot traffic may require additional staff posted at the entrances and exits or monitors in the halls. That’s more dangerous than wandering, which is when a person gets lost, or perhaps slips away from those supervising them, but remains within the grounds of a facility.
This, in addition to other safety and security measures like installing an emergency call system, goes a long way in reducing unsupervised wandering and preventing elopement in nursing homes and other facilities. In nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care facilities, elopement is a type of unsupervised wandering where the resident leaves the facility without notice. It is usually applied specifically to residents who are incapable of protecting themselves from harm and who exit the facility unnoticed. Since elderly nursing home residents can suffer serious injuries due to elopement and wandering without supervision, it is important to find ways to prevent these instances from occurring in the first place. In addition to administering tests to find out what patients are at the highest risk for elopement, it is also necessary to have proper training practices.
Difference Between Wandering and Elopement
Failing to prevent wandering or elopement or not responding to news of a missing patient correctly could be a sign of nursing home neglect. Our attorneys have many years of experience successfully handling nursing home abuse and neglect cases. At the Peck Law Group, we know what it takes to fight for our clients’ rights. Speak with an attorney today for free and get answers to your questions or find out if you have a case for elopement in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or other long-term care. If you or a loved one has experienced abuse or neglect, which caused elopement or wandering-related injuries, a speaking with an attorney with experience in the field of nursing home abuse can help. If the nursing home or assisted living facility was negligent in any way, they might be legally responsible for any injuries that occurred due to the elopement or wandering incident.
Typically, a nursing home resident’s mental, emotional, and physical state contribute to whether they will elope from a nursing home. In many of these cases, the facility was aware of the fact that the senior may have been more susceptible to eloping because of their history of neurological diseases. However, the facility neglected to take the proper precautions to prevent this from happening. Elopement is just one example of what can happen when a nursing home lacks the proper protocols and sufficient staff to care for all the residents. When you place your elderly or disabled loved one in the care of a nursing home, you expect them to take every measure to honor, respect, and protect them.
What Is Elopement in Nursing Homes?
Nursing homes may know which residents are more at risk of eloping because of their cognitive status but fail to take the needed precautions to keep their patients safe. The best way to prevent elopement in nursing homes is to ensure the nursing home staff has the proper training and actively remains vigilant while working. It is crucial for the nursing home staff to have an understanding of the residents’ habits and day-to-day activities.
Over the course of the pandemic, one in five Covid deaths were among those who were in a long-term care facility. Mortality rates increase significantly if the wandering person is not found within 24 hours, so missing-person protocol should be established and drills should be practiced routinely by staff. Nursing homes present themselves as experts in caring for senior citizens. Their legal and ethical duties are to ensure the proper controls and action plans are in place to create a safe environment.
How to handle and prevent elopement, including the security measures that should always be in place and what to do if a patient is missing. Many nursing home residents who elope are intentionally leaving because they believe they have something important to do. They may be trying to return to a home that no longer exists, visits a relative who has already passed away, or feed a pet that has been dead for many years. When nursing home staff fails to provide adequate supervision and security, it puts residents at risk.
Nursing home patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and other mentally debilitating illnesses, may experience elopement during their stay in a nursing home facility. Elopement, also known as wandering, in the nursing home setting refers to the patient leaving a facility without notice. Many wandering patients are found right outside the dwelling and taken back in by a staff member. However, when wandering is unsupervised, it puts residents at risk for elopement, or leaving a facility, which can result in injury and even death. Elopement is frightening for residents and their families and has resulted in large liability claims and business closures. An access control system that allows you to secure and manage all doors helps to increase security for your facility while also protecting residents and staff.
You can reduce the risk of nursing home neglect or elopement by visiting your elderly loved one regularly. This allows you to check their overall wellbeing in person and note any signs of abuse or neglect. You may pick up on cognitive or emotional changes that make them more prone to elopement and inform the staff.
Staff and visitors are potential entry points to nursing homes for the virus. The best facilities use a multi-layered approach, protecting residents with masks, screening questions, temperature checks and enhanced infection control. Age and underlying health conditions are two of the biggest risk factors for Covid, which made nursing homes a hotbed for the virus during the pandemic. Nursing homes must take reasonable precautions to prevent residents from wandering from the building. State surveys of nursing homes refer to visits by official representatives of the state based upon either annual schedules or complaint investigations.
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