Elder Abuse

[Sorcha Griannon]

How the hell could someone do this? If you want to beat someone up, do it to someone that can fight back. (yeah I know, cowards won't do that)

Story
http://cbs2.com/local/Calabasas.Elder.Care.2.832534.html

Video
http://www.cbs2.com/video/?id=79185@kcbs.dayport.com

Sorcha

[Buxom Wench]

On the news just days ago, there was a report that 90%...90% of all nursing homes/care facilities are mismanaged and the amount of abuse is staggering. The abuse can be physical, neglect, emotional.


Abuse in nursing homes and health care facilities (http://www.13wham.com/guides/legal/elder/story.aspx?heading=Elder+Law&content_id=1e4a214b-5540-48d3-9ef5-bebd2da9fe37)

More than 1.5 (one point five) million elderly and disabled Americans reside in 16,000 (sixteen thousand) nursing homes, but many of these nursing homes don’t hire sufficient numbers of qualified staff. Untrained or overworked aides or nurses may not be able to handle the demanding daily needs of nursing home residents. But exposing neglect and abuse in a nursing home is much more difficult than in some other health care facilities because victims often can’t communicate the nature of their abuse or neglect. Common forms of abuse include failure to provide proper nutrition and hydration; failure to keep the resident clean; over-medication or under-medication; failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent falls; failure to answer nursing-station call lights in a timely fashion; failure to turn residents in their beds, which causes bed sores; and failure to take residents to the toilet when necessary. Signs of abuse include bed sores, skin rash, urine or feces odor, falls, skin tears (tehrz), bruises, fractures, weight loss, dehydration, disorientation, depression, unexplained mood changes, unexplained refusal or inability to communicate, fear, anxiety, and unjustified use of chemical or physical restraints. If abuse is suspected, you should get help by immediately notifying the nursing home administration, and state government nursing home and Medicare or Medicaid agencies. Victims of nursing home abuse or neglect may also need legal help to ensure that their rights to proper treatment, which are guaranteed under the federal Nursing Home Reform Act and various state laws, are being met. Because most states limit the time in which legal actions can be taken, contact with an attorney should be sought immediately.

[lordwriothsley]

You know I really felt for that woman in the video.How could someone do such a stupid thing like that.I hope whoever beat that poor man to death rots the rest of his stinken life away in prison.My dear wenches I'm sorry if I sounded so harsh but that was just wrong plain wrong.

[daBaroness]

My cousin followed in our grandfather's footsteps as an administrator of a nursing home in Ohio. Our grandpa ran the Gilbert Residence in Ypsilanti, MI as if his own parents were residents. The place was home-like, spotless and NEVER smelled of urine or any other scent associated with inadequate care. My cousin's nursing home is the same.

But she and I have talked about how difficult it is to find the right help for the environment. First - people who work in a nursing or retirement home need to really love and respect elders. That isn't an easy find at all - people in nursing usually prefer a more "exciting" specialty than caring for the elderly. Wiping the butt of a newborn is far more fulfilling than wiping the butt of an 89-year-old man.

Secondly - the pay scale for nursing homes is notoriously low. Most nursing schools discourage potential students from getting a LPN licensure because it pretty much relegates them to nursing homes - which by that very prediction is viewed to be the toilet of nursing jobs.

In many nursing homes they have LPNs managing CNAs and more often, completely untrained, uncertified and unqualified people as the care givers of our elders. The industry as a whole, feeling this pinch doesn't often do much (if any) background checking of its employees. They figure if they're willing to clean up and feed old people - that's good enough.

As a result many of the individuals taking care of our precious aging parents and grandparents are the dregs of society - making a little over minimum wage. My grandmother was in a nursing home for the last year or so of her life and in that time she had her wedding ring stolen right off her finger (she'd only removed it once since 1929), her glasses came up missing, she fell while trying to go to the bathroom with assistance - cracking the commode itself with her head, which required stitches and basically deteriorated into death. And for that excellent, loving care - they depleted her savings and once medicare and medicaid took over, the level of service went downhill. Visiting her was just painful - the place wreaked of urine and feces, residents were just warehoused in wheelchairs along a hallway or plopped in the day room in front of a TV. And this ladies - was a top-rated nursing home. Not some flea-bag dump.

I don't know what the answer is. Our society used to care for our own elders in our own homes - it was part of being a family. Today we're too busy or too far away. We're not equipped to provide round-the-clock care to the people who did so for us at one time. Our workplaces aren't sympathetic or accommodating to the needs of employees caring for elder family members. And even the best, most expensive nursing facilities don't provide the level of care and caring our elders deserve. And if the elders themselves do not have savings put away for their retirement years, the outlook is even more bleak.

My best friend lost her mother last fall and struggled for her last two years to do what was best for her. Her ultimate solution was to bring her mother to live with her. It was getting so her mother couldn't care for herself during Vic's work hours and she was looking into getting some kind of daycare for her mom. The weekend before her mother passed, she said to Vicki that she was finally happy and knew she was in the right place. That was Sunday - she died on Wednesday.

I've personally vowed to both of my parents that I'm here to do whatever needs to be done. They're both in pretty good health for people in their mid to late 70s. They're both married to fairly healthy partners. But I know the day is coming that will change. And I've assured both of them if I need to quit my job and live with them to care for them - I'm ready. I've even assured both of my parents that I will care for their spouses should they oursurvive them. I think that was especially reassuring to my stepmother who has no child or close family any more. And my stepfather's daughters are all a mess so there's no way he could depend on them.

This whole issue is one that gets little national attention. It is, in my opinion, a national tragedy that gets little in the way of resources or brainpower to solve. And that makes me sad, because I've always loved the elderly. I thank my grandpa Collins for the opportunity through his work to know elders for who they are - wonderful people with wisdom and knowledge who just want to be treated with care and respect in their remaining years.

[Ravin' Raven]

Mt best friend is a geriatrics nurse and has been for 23 years now. The entire time she has worked at Delaware's facility for basically otherwise indigent elderly. Most are medicaid recipients. The grounds on which her facility sit are decaying. To try to make som emoney the state uses part of it as housing for teenage drug offenders who are on the state's dime to house them, school them, and try to clean them up. I often worry what woudl happen if one of those kids got the wrong idea one night because, well, there's basically no security at the old folks home.

Angella could have made a choice years ago ( and still could) to go work at a big hospital and make more but she stays where she is because she's needed and she cares. She once sat with a lady who was dying and was begging her daughter to tell her what she did wrong (Angella had never seen this daughter in 7 years) so she let the lady have some final peace by prentending to be the daughter and telling her everything was okay. There are not enough care givers out there who would stay four hours past the end of their shift (Angella had five kids at home at the time) just to give peace to some poor forgotten woman.

Anyone who abuses an elder should be taken out back and shot - even worse - if it's their own relative. Hurt 'em first, let 'em suffer for a month or so, and then take them out....

[Ocasio]

Angella could have made a choice years ago ( and still could) to go work at a big hospital and make more but she stays where she is because she's needed and she cares. She once sat with a lady who was dying and was begging her daughter to tell her what she did wrong (Angella had never seen this daughter in 7 years) so she let the lady have some final peace by prentending to be the daughter and telling her everything was okay. There are not enough care givers out there who would stay four hours past the end of their shift (Angella had five kids at home at the time) just to give peace to some poor forgotten woman.


A true Saint; I am inspired and awed by people like that. I do my best to reciprocate where I can with our elders.

On several occasions, we dressed up in garb and visited the local homes for their entertainment but it's been so long since I've done that a too few times at that.

[Adriana Rose]

My sister is a CNA and she works at a home, she loves that kind of work. She said that she gets soo mad at the others because there are some who skimp on the work because it is not fun. She had taken a leave of absence and there was a resident that she would sit with make sure that she drank and ate. And she was reading the paper and less than 2 months she was gone the lady died and she said that it was because no one cared enough to do that.



There was a program that the county did up here called Elder Watch, there was a sheriffs officer that would go around and check in on the Elders that lived by themselves. It was nice for the people.

I think that its a tragidy that the nurses and CNA's dont get paid enough to make it..