Friday, July 18, 2014

AARP Wins Class Action Against Over Drugging of Seniors

A California nursing home has settled with AARP in an unprecedented class-action lawsuit against the facility for using inappropriate kinds and amounts of psychiatric drugs on elderly residents without the consent of the residents or their families, according to AARP Bulletin. University of California nursing professor Charlene Harrington told AARP Bulletin that the use of “unnecessary” and “extremely dangerous” antipsychotics as chemical restraints in US long-term care facilities is widespread.

AARP lawyer Kelly Bagby said of the successful legal action, “It is the first case of its kind in the country, and hopefully we can replicate this nationwide.”

AARP Bulletin says over-medicating of seniors in long-term care facilities “stems from inadequate training and chronic understaffing, as well as an aggressive push by pharmaceutical companies to market their products.”

Attorney Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy told AARP Bulletin, “The misuse of antipsychotic drugs as chemical restraints is one of the most common and long-standing, but preventable, practices causing serious harm to nursing home residents today. When nursing facilities divert funds from the care of residents to corporate overhead and profits, the human toll is enormous.”

Full Article and Source:
AARP Wins Class Action Against Over Drugging of Seniors

4 comments:

  1. Great!

    Now the AARP needs to sue on behalf of hospital patients who are dumped into unethical public guardianship programs with improper notice, no notice to known relatives, a hand-picked guardian ad litem "for" the incapacitated person, and a five minute joke of a hearing that the patient is not even allowed to attend, in clear violation of the law.

    After the judge rubber stamps the order, the patient is unceremoniously dumped into a horrible adult home like the five hellholes with 379 victims formerly operated by the notorious Scott Schuett in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. (Please google Scott Schuett for the appalling details.)

    If anybody complains or tries to intervene on behalf of the elderly or disabled person, they will be cut off from all contact and subjected to unrelenting, groundless smears.

    AARP, call me!

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  2. One state?
    We need a federal class action prohibiting overdrugging, period!

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  3. Good to see AARP in the real arena again!

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  4. Washington state needs to be investigated!

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