Nursing Home Abuse

We are living longer. However that does not mean we are necessarily living healthier. For many elderly people the only alternative is to spend their remaining days in an assisted living facility, or a nursing home. While there are many such facilities with professional and dedicated people, there are more and more incidents being reported of elder abuse, something well hidden from family members. According to Congressional figures, "There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that currently care for 1.6 million residents - a figure expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050" (Anon 1). This report goes on to state that "Eye witness accounts and surveys have sadly shown that nursing home abuse and neglect is a serious problem, and that there also is significant underreporting. Major underlying causes of elder mistreatment, according to findings of the National Academy of Sciences Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect, are:

Stressful working conditions, particularly staff shortages, Staff burnout (and) inadequate staff training" (Anon 2).

There are now many statistics which are bringing this problem into public view. But, from research studied, it seems that this abuse still continues. "The forms of elder abuse found in nursing homes mirror those found in domestic settings; they include homicide, physical and sexual assault, neglect, inappropriate restraint, financial abuse, isolation, verbal threats and intimidation. In addition, nursing home abuse includes institutionalized practices that result in chronic neglect, sub-standard care, overcrowding, authoritarian practices, and failure to protect residents against untrained, troubled or predatory workers, or against abusive residents or visitors" (Nerenbereg 2).

According to various studies, it seems that the majority of abuse is performed by nurses' aides. The reason, according to research by Nerenberg (2002) and others is that there are more nurses aides than any other group of employees. It also seems likely that long hours and poor pay and, therefore, callous indifference to the patients is a result.

One major problem seems to be the lack of proper reporting of incidents. Not only are some incidents never reported at all, but those that are reported may be reported days or even weeks later. ABC News reported on a Government Accounting Office report: "The GAO report found that 50 percent of abuse reports from nursing homes came at least two or more days after caregivers first learned about allegations. The delay hampered gathering evidence and made prosecuting the cases difficult" (Robinson 3). This same report also goers on to cover the Senate hearings: "Infected feeding tubes and bed sores the size of dinner plates were just some of the signs of neglect found when reviewing nursing home deaths, according to one coroner's Senate hearing testimony" (ABC News 2).

While it hardly is an excuse, as more and more people age and require assisted living facilities, those facilities and their employees are going to be stretched ever thinner. Abuse is more than actual physical abuse, it is also neglect. And, sometimes, that comes for no other reason than there are more patients than the staff can properly take care of. "According to... statistics, more than 30% of all nursing homes in America indulge in some form of resident abuse, with the numbers on an ever increasing trend. As per published statistics, more than 50% of all nursing homes are short staffed and do not have enough staff to help care for the residents" (Anon 3).

It is gratifying to know that some government agencies are doing something. Eliot Spitzer, Attorney-General for the State of New York took some action recently. He announced "the arrests of 19 employees from the Rochester nursing home and a second, in Cortland, on criminal charges of neglect and falsifying records. The arrests followed a month-long investigation using hidden cameras in the bedrooms of two patients. The investigation showed that staff members at the homes routinely moved call bells out of patients' reach so that the employees could watch movies, sleep or socialize rather than check on patients or give them medicine" (Medina 3).

Despite headlines, probes, investigations and a lot of negative feedback, there are some alternatives to nursing homes, especially for those who are not totally dependent on round-the-clock care and may even have some mobility. One alternative is "assisted living" facilities, where guests have their own apartments, where nurses are on duty,, where meals are available (either served in a common dining room, or brought to the rooms). Under a pilot program begun in the late 1980s in Florida, for example, "elderly people are being sent to live in adult foster homes or boarding house-type facilities" (Lessner F7). The idea was to prevent loneliness and to have assistance for meals even for bathing available. The idea of "group homes" is gaining in popularity because one of the greatest forms of despair among the elderly is loneliness. Unfortunately, sometimes this group home concept helps when immediate family members prefer to put their old and inform parents or other family members "out of sight and out of mind." What seems the best possible way to avoid and prevent any sort of elder abuse in nursing facilities is to create higher paying jobs, insist on proper training, and insist on visible compassion on the part of every employee that comes in contact with the elderly.

REFERENCES:

Lessner, Pat: "Alternative to Nursing Homes Sought" Los Angeles TIMES, Oct. 1 1987.

Medina, Jennifer: "Neglect at 2 Nursing Homes Is on Videotape, Spitzer Says" New York TIMES, Jan. 6, 2006

Nerenberg, Lisa: "Abuse in Nursing Homes" SpecialResearchReviewSectionNationalCenter on Elder Abuse Newsletter, May 2002

Robinson, Bryan: "Why Some Elderly Attacks Go Unnoticed" ABC News, March 2, 2002.

No author listed: "Nursing Home Abuse" National Center for Elder Abuse www.elderabusecenter.org/default.cfm?p=nursinghomeabuse.cfm

No author listed: "Few Prosecutions in Elder Abuse" ABC News Good Morning America, March 7, 2002

No author listed: "Nursing Home Abuse Statistics" Lawcore www.lawcore.com/nursing-home-abuse/statistics.html