ployment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followe

Although most eldercare abuse occurs domestically, a large proportion also occurs in care facilities such as rest homes, nursing homes and similar establishments. Eldercare abuse can take many forms from physical assault to mental and emotional abuse.

It is often found that abuse of the elderly in nursing homes could have been avoided by proper background checks on employees. Nursing home negligence is the cause of many forms of such abuse, including emotional abuse and elderly people can suffer falls or even dehydration due to negligent care. This is frequently the result of negligent hiring where insufficient background screening had been carried out.

Eldercare abuse in care facilities has become so common that it has reached the national media and federal action has been necessary to establish a program to reduce this type of abuse. The question of physical restraint is a specifically difficult one. It is often necessary to restrain the elderly when they are unable to move around themselves without falling over. In such cases restraint is a necessary means of protecting the individual. However, it can be used to the extreme and although legal, individuals could also be sedated in order to stop them from struggling against the restraints.

Training in the use of restraints is often insufficient or missing altogether, and there are many other aspects of caring for the elderly that require special training or qualifications. Eldercare abuse is carried out by all levels of staff within nursing establishments. Doctors and nurses are just as liable to be guilty as auxiliary staff such as porters, non professional carers and unlicensed medical practitioners. Sometimes the abuse is unintentional and due to a misunderstanding of the needs of the aged, but frequently it is deliberate and occasionally even sadistic.

In many cases a proper background check before employment would have detected a previous record of this type of abuse. One major problem is that many employers will provide only dates of employment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followed

or even dehydration due to negligent care. This is frequently the result of negligent hiring where insufficient background screening had been carried out.

Eldercare abuse in care facilities has become so common that it has reached the national media and federal action has been necessary to establish a program to reduce this type of abuse. The question of physical restraint is a specifically difficult one. It is often necessary to restrain the elderly when they are unable to move around themselves without falling over. In such cases restraint is a necessary means of protecting the individual. However, it can be used to the extreme and although legal, individuals could also be sedated in order to stop them from struggling against the restraints.

Training in the use of restraints is often insufficient or missing altogether, and there are many other aspects of caring for the elderly that require special training or qualifications. Eldercare abuse is carried out by all levels of staff within nursing establishments. Doctors and nurses are just as liable to be guilty as auxiliary staff such as porters, non professional carers and unlicensed medical practitioners. Sometimes the abuse is unintentional and due to a misunderstanding of the needs of the aged, but frequently it is deliberate and occasionally even sadistic.

In many cases a proper background check before employment would have detected a previous record of this type of abuse. One major problem is that many employers will provide only dates of employment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followe

ut falling over. In such cases restraint is a necessary means of protecting the individual. However, it can be used to the extreme and although legal, individuals could also be sedated in order to stop them from struggling against the restraints.

Training in the use of restraints is often insufficient or missing altogether, and there are many other aspects of caring for the elderly that require special training or qualifications. Eldercare abuse is carried out by all levels of staff within nursing establishments. Doctors and nurses are just as liable to be guilty as auxiliary staff such as porters, non professional carers and unlicensed medical practitioners. Sometimes the abuse is unintentional and due to a misunderstanding of the needs of the aged, but frequently it is deliberate and occasionally even sadistic.

In many cases a proper background check before employment would have detected a previous record of this type of abuse. One major problem is that many employers will provide only dates of employment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followe

blishments. Doctors and nurses are just as liable to be guilty as auxiliary staff such as porters, non professional carers and unlicensed medical practitioners. Sometimes the abuse is unintentional and due to a misunderstanding of the needs of the aged, but frequently it is deliberate and occasionally even sadistic.

In many cases a proper background check before employment would have detected a previous record of this type of abuse. One major problem is that many employers will provide only dates of employment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followe

ployment and not reasons for severance or dismissal, and it can be difficult to find the truth behind an individual’s employment history. Until it is made just as illegal to refuse this information as it is to provide false information, this will always be a problem.

However, some hiring is negligent nevertheless, and any person applying for a job involved working with the elderly should be thoroughly screened prior to employment. At the very least a full residential check should be carried out followed by criminal background checks in the counties of residence. A full employment record should be obtained whenever possible and credit references should also be examined. Theft from the elderly is not uncommon, and knowledge of a record of financial difficulty might be useful. Forewarned is forearmed as they say. Financial eldercare abuse involving theft from the elderly is not uncommon.

Employers of nursing home personnel have a greater duty to carry out adequate pre-employment screening than those of most other types of work. Agencies, especially, can be guilty of not carrying out sufficient background checks of temporary staff including nurses and non-professional care staff. Many nursing staff has entered the care system with a history of drug abuse and other criminal activities due to what can only be described as negligent hiring.

Very often the screening procedure is cursory and this sort of lip service to what should be a very intensive checking procedure is sometimes due to staff shortages and a lack of suitably trained candidates. Some nursing homes are also under financial pressure and prefer not to have professional employee background checking carried out. They may offer lower wages that true professional staff would find difficult to accept.