Selling Out Seniors: A Nursing Home Analysis

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).

When you hear the words, “Nursing Home”, what comes to mind? Sad, helpless, elderly individuals? The smell of urine? An overall, unpleasant place to reside in? Unfortunately, this generic description is accurate amongst majority of the nursing home facilities across the United States. More often than not, the elderly suffer from inhumane living conditions while residing in a nursing facility. Quite often we hear stories on the news about cases of elder abuse in the nursing home and we automatically think physical, mental, or emotional abuse from caregivers. However, the fact that these individuals are also living amongst unsanitary, inhumane conditions, and ran by a staff that includes

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

When on a placement in a care home, the elderly were treated without respect, they were shouted at by the staff and poor manual handling was used when moving the elderly residents. This was just one care home out of hundreds, not all care homes are like this and the clients will be treated with respect and dignity.

There are have been many cases of nursing home and elder abuse nation wide and all around the world. One case that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland that involved a man who worked in a long term care facility and hit one of his residents.(Lee, 2013) This resident was an 84 year old man. This man was only caught

Like demonstrated in chapter four of the book, they lose all sense of independence and privacy, and are forced to get dressed, take their medicine or do activities when told to instead of being able to decide for themselves. With the idea of assisted living, Keren Wilson will allow her mother to “be Jesse again, a person living in a apartment instead of a patient in a bed.”(Gawande, 2014, p. 89). I feel it is important to treat those with serious infirmities, like physical or mental weakness, with respect and independence because many of them don’t have a say or voice on where they are placed. They are unable to live on their own so they are forced to be put in nursing homes, where they become sheltered, abandoned, and sadly sometimes forgotten. This is why showing them respect, dignity, and giving them some independence will go a long way.

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.

Too often seniors refuse to report abuse, neglect, or crime against them out of fear of losing independence. It is a common misconception that being victimized will deem you unfit to live independently and will result in being placed in a facility of some sort. It is important that seniors feel they can turn to those around them with concerns and incidents that occur. In the event that a senior is not forthcoming with information there are a number of avenues that may involve reporting of suspected incidents. Hospitals, doctors, community service organizations, and long term care facilities can report suspected crimes to authorities or Department of Social Services in an effort to protect the individual. If a senior cannot properly protect themselves then health care professionals from all areas should have the ability to act on behalf of the individual to seek help but not dictate the overall outcome as a result. For example: simply finding that a person has been a victim of exploitation should not mean that a person be moved immediately into a facility forfeiting their right to care for themselves. All facilities acting to protect a senior should aim to preserve senior

You did a good job of explaining the elder justice act. Before reading your post, I did not know such thing even existed. The elder justice act was passed by president Obama on march 23, 2010, as part of the patient protection and affordable care act. The main goal of the law is to give resources to help protect, prevent and act upon any forms of elder abuse. The law requires the Department of Health and Human Services to overlook and manage all federal resources to protect the elderly. The law also requires the Department of Justice to help prevent elderly abuse through education, programs, and leadership. The law also allows that all care facilities employees receive a background check and any elderly abuse in long term care facilities be

Abuse can happen to anyone, but elderly adults residing in nursing homes are more vulnerable and have a higher risk for abuse (Rasansky Law Firm, 2006, para. 1). Elders are among the fastest growing in the population, and because of this many more elderly

Some of the reasons for this may be fear of increased abuse or even simply believing that reporting will not change the situation. Professionals have the dilemma whether or not to say anything because of ignorance of how or what to report which prolongs the neglect and abuse (Brandl et al., 2006). As a healthcare professional, you are mandated to report any abuse you witness. Sadly, elder abuse is a crime that is underreported, and understudied that impact millions of elders (McClennen, J.C.,2010). Seeing firsthand what goes on in a long-term care facility where many of the elderly are virtually helpless, opened my eyes to how immense this issue is in our Country. I realized that if things go unnoticed in care facilities, they will be ignored in domestic setting, assisted living facilities and anywhere else for that matter. There has to be some kind of solution to this

Are nursing homes abusing and neglecting the elderly? The elderly are abused and neglected in society today by caregivers in nursing homes. Elder abuse or neglect is a single or repeated action occurring within any relationship where there is an overlook of trust which causes injury or distress to an older person.

The author of this article, David McKie a CBC crew member describes the situation of nursing homes in Canada. He talks about abuse from the staff and from the seniors. This article specifically refers to two examples in Canada of this abuse and it also states that about seventy percent of nursing homes are a dumping place for elderly who are “mentally unstable”. McKie states that it is difficult to know exactly what is going on in nursing homes because the staff are aware when a safety check is going to happen and can fix whatever is wrong before this time comes. The CBC crew is still attempting to get more information from nursing homes

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?

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