Falls are one of the most common and dangerous accidents that occur in nursing homes. For residents living with dementia, the risks are even greater. A single fall can cause hip fractures, head injuries, or long-term disability, and recovery is often more complicated for seniors with cognitive decline. Families trust nursing homes to keep their loved ones safe, yet too often facilities fail to provide the extra care that dementia patients require.

This article explores why dementia increases the risk of falls, what responsibilities nursing homes have, how neglect can lead to devastating outcomes, and what legal options are available for families when facilities fail to meet their duty of care.

When families entrust an elderly loved one to a nursing home, they do so with the expectation that the environment will provide safety, dignity, and proper care. Yet, behind the walls of some facilities, an invisible form of abuse often lurks: financial exploitation. Unlike physical neglect, which may leave visible marks, exploitation frequently goes undetected until significant damage has already been done.

What Financial Exploitation Means

When families place their loved ones in a nursing home, they expect care, protection, and dignity. Much of the public conversation about abuse in these facilities focuses on staff mistreatment. But there is another, less-discussed problem: resident-to-resident abuse.

This form of abuse occurs when one resident harms another physically, emotionally, or psychologically. While it might not always stem from malicious intent, the impact can be devastating. Nursing homes have a legal duty to protect residents from foreseeable harm — and that includes harm caused by other residents.

For families, placing a loved one in a nursing home is an act of trust. They believe the facility will provide care, safety, and dignity. Unfortunately, many discover too late that their loved one has suffered repeated injuries while in the facility’s care. A fall, a fracture, or even unexplained bruising may first be dismissed as an accident. But when these incidents happen again and again, it is a glaring red flag.

Recurrent injuries are rarely coincidental. Instead, they often reveal systemic neglect—patterns of understaffing, inadequate supervision, or a failure to correct known risks. Families deserve to understand why these repeated injuries happen, what the law requires of nursing homes, and what steps they can take to protect their loved ones.