Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Study: 1 in 5 nursing home residents abused


WASHINGTON, D.C. - The horrific possibility that their loved one has been abused in a nursing home can dawn on family members after the appearance of an unexplained cut or bruise.

Now, researchers say that such injuries are often inflicted not by overworked health aides, but by a seemingly harmless roommate, or someone living just down the hall.

The first study to look at the scope of negative aggression between residents of U.S. nursing homes has found that almost one in five people who live in these facilities are involved in such encounters within a four-week period.

These invasive, disruptive or hostile incidents — from something so mild as rummaging through a fellow resident's belongings to outright physical or sexual assault — are so common at long-term care facilities that “staff members seem almost unaware” that it's a problem, said lead author Karl Pillemer, a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University.

The study results were made public Thursday at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. They provide new insight into the lives of almost 1.4 million nursing home residents in the United States, more than 72,000 of them in Florida. 

“Nursing home care is essential for some older Americans; these are very necessary institutions and often very caring institutions,” Pillemer said. “So it may come as a surprise that we found such high rates of conflict and violence. It's very likely that the consequences of resident-to-resident mistreatment are severe, leading to lacerations, bruises and fractures. The residents' frailty makes these altercations more dangerous."

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Study: 1 in 5 nursing home residents abused

2 comments:

  1. This is sad, but old, news.

    Just look at the Scott Schuett scandal in Virginia.

    400 people in six facilities, subjected to systematic abuse and neglect. Needless suffering, misery, death.

    The Commonwealth of Virginia dragged its feet, fabricated and deleted records, and did not shut down Scott Schuett until after nineteen months and SEVENTEEN newspaper stories. (All of the information in the newspaper stories came from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was readily available on the Commonwealth's licensing website.)

    Corrupt attorney bureaucrats harrumphed and hid the truth, even shooting the messenger by spreading deliberate malicious lies about a cancer victim/whistleblower.

    When the truth finally came out, these shameless overpaid liars claimed they did something "as soon as we found out about it." Right, two or three years after documented complaints about Scott Schuett from an attorney and others!

    Today, instead of facing criminal charges, as he should, Scott Schuett walks around a free man, kvetching that he was persecuted. These numerous public official attorneys and guardian ad litem did not even comply with their mandatory ethical obligation to REPORT SCOTT SCHUETT TO THE BAR.

    Now these crooks want more money to spread more misery.

    A simple question: we can get people to abuse, neglect, and ridicule our elderly and disabled FOR FREE. Why on earth should we PAY YOU to abuse, neglect, and ridicule our elderly and disabled?

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  2. One in five that we know of. How many suffer in silence.

    Thank you, Anonymous, for your post.

    Scott Scheutt's escapades are an example of what I'm saying.

    ReplyDelete