Essay on Nursing Home Abuse: An Avoidable Tragedy

Choosing a long-term care facility can be very difficult because of incidents of abuse and/or neglect reported against care facilities can be overwhelming. For example in “Ending Elder Abuse: A family guide”, Diane Sandell lists many elder abuse incidents from her files such as: neglect of decubitis ulcers led to infection, sepsis, gangrene, and death. Facility failed to provide necessary diabetic diet; improper insulin administration, insulin overdose; dehydration and death. Resident left alone in chair in shower room fell, became paralyzed from neck down. Many reports of pinching, rough handling, slapping, yelling, threats (2000). It is believed that abuse is most likely to occur if the caregiver not only finds the work difficult but also (1) works full time, (2) cares for young children, (3) is poor, (4) feels little affection for the older person, (5) finds the elderly person very difficult, and (6) gets no support or help from others (Macionis, 2005). Although there is no excuse for abusing elderly Americans, it is still very prominent in today’s society. Diane Sandell explains in Ending Elder Abuse, that her 91 year old mother was beaten by a long-term care facility employee in the middle of the night for reasons unknown. It is stated that her mother died 6 weeks after the incident, unable to recover mentally from the abuse (2000).

Is it worth putting your loved ones in a nursing home facility? According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Each year, hundreds of thousands of adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially exploited.” Family members of an elderly person might assume that because they are paying such a large amount of money for assistance and a room in the facility, that they’re getting the best treatment and care for their relative. Although one might believe their loved ones would be better off in a nursing home, they might be putting them at a greater risk of abuse due to understaffing, lack of training within the staff, neglect, nurse burnout, and low wages. 2,150,000 cases

Although it does not usually make news headlines and is rarely discussed, nursing home residents and the elderly experience abuse sometimes on a daily basis. Medical errors, physical abuse, or stealing from them could all be classified as abuse. All around the world today, a population that is not able to help itself is being harmed, whether it is physical or sexual abuse, exploitation, or not being properly supervised; the elderly and nursing home residents are being abused.

Do you have a loved one in a nursing home? Imagine if your grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, mom, dad or other loved one was being abused. How would this make you feel? Abuse does not necessarily mean physical abuse (hitting, scratching, pulling hair, etc.). Other types of abuse include sexual, neglect, exploitation, emotional, abandonment, and self-neglect.

One thing every living organism has in common on this planet-- age. No one wants to age or face the fact that aging is inevitable. However, since it’s impossible to beat the never ending time clock that is life; everyone wants to be as comfortable as possible when age finally does catch up with them. When the majority of people think of comfortability in old age, they think of living in their own homes and being surrounded by their loved ones. Not many individuals want to be placed into a nursing home type facility because they can’t imagine themselves being comfortable that way. Nonetheless, even though being placed in a home does take away some of an elderly person’s independence, usually the independence lost is in activities that person can no longer do for themselves. Indeed, nursing homes do have their own set of scary stories behind them; life lost, independence lost, and privacy lost, yet many of those stories are outdated. Upon investigation, it would be easy for anyone to scare themselves out of a nursing facility due to the stories that are out there. Yet, upon even further research people would be able to see how far the United States has come in their development and evolution of nursing care facilities. The care of the elderly in the form of nursing homes has faced a tough evolution starting off with a harsh past, to what nursing homes are like now, and what people can expect for the future of these homes.

With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored and deprived of social contact and stimulation. Because of insufficient and poorly trained staff commonly found in

There are many broad and different definitions of elder abuse, and different forms and ways to deal with it. Elder abuse consists of “intentional or neglectful acts of a caregiver, family member, friend, or other individuals that lead to, or may lead to, harm of a senior citizen” (Elder Abuse Facts, 2016). One of the biggest problems we face when looking at this policy is that elder harm and abuse can happen practically anywhere. Elder abuse can happen in a private setting; in their own homes committed by their own family members (Help Guide, 2014, p.1). But it can also happen in a care center, with lots of people living in close proximity to them.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92689&page=1 In some senior homes, many patients are treated poorly, many employees don't even take good care of their patients because they ignore them or do not give them the right medication. Over 90% of Nursing Homes in the United States have had some kind of violation or confirmed complaint in the last 3 years. Some of these issues are minor and some are life

As the healthcare system in this country has changed, so have traditional nursing homes. Families have the right to expect that their loved ones will be taken care of by professionals in a caring environment. Unfortunately, may people are being abused and neglected in nursing homes. It is very clear that abuse is a serious problem among nursing home patients, and something needs to be done to put a stop to it.

Sometimes, the decision to place a senior citizen in an assisted living facility comes from sheer desperation. You, as the primary caregiver, have done all you can

Most people dread nursing homes because it conjures up all types of negative images. Unfortunately, many of the stories that we hear are true. Despite all the attention this issue has received recently, neglect in nursing homes continues at an alarming rate. A large majority of nursing home residents report some type of neglect every year. Tragically, only a few come to light as most seniors either do not have the ability to communicate or are simply too afraid to speak up.

To continue, physical abuse is when a person touches an elderly person in a hurtful way. (Webster’s dictionary). There are several kinds of physical abuse that can be involved such as hitting, pinching, kicking, punching, hair pulling, or biting. This type of maltreatment is an important issue that especially concerns the older generation in nursing home or hospitals. Physical abuse can also lead to future complications in the patient’s health like forgetting to change I.V’s, leaving them outside too long, not properly cleaning them or regulating their other everyday needs. This kind of physical abuse can fall under the category of intentional neglect, where someone who is aware does not regulate their patients on time, or properly. According to a document about physical abuse on elderly, a nurse can physically abuse a patient for the reason of their lack of time to do their work because of an overload number of patient. Nurses use several tactics to make an act of abuse for example; doing the act every so often would decrease the amount of doubts from the authorities or superiors. Violent acts

However, elder abuse is also common among the millions of elder Americans who reside in nursing homes. A study where 2,000 nursing home residents were interviewed, reported that 44% of the residents had been abused and 95% said they had been neglected or seen another resident neglected. They also state that 91% of nursing homes lack adequate staff to properly care for patients and 36% are known to have been in violation of elderly abuse laws (National Center on Elder Abuse). This information is extremely alarming. If these facts have already been uncovered, why is it that no one is doing anything to prevent this from happening to others?

A 2010 National ombudsman reporting system study revealed some alarming discoveries about elder abuse in nursing home facilities. Of all of the abuse reported, aside from patient on patient abuse, nursing home staff misconduct

Elderly abuse in nursing homes in America is an uprising issue. Elders make up a large portion of our population and they deserve the equality. This issue is very important because eventually this could affect you personally, or a loved one in your family. I stand for better environments in these nursing homes and find it terrible that elders get treated so poorly. The reason the number of reports on elder abuse has gone up so rapidly in the past decade is because the number of elders has drastically risen. There is an increase in the number of elders not only because Americans are living longer than ever before, but also because the next generation of senior citizens is larger than ever before. It has been predicted