Senior Home Thesis

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

Ohio, long-term care facilities, had several incidences of abuse not adequately investigated by the facility or reported to the Ohio Department of Health within 24 hours. Therefore, the subsequent reports due within five days were not completed (Ohio Health Care Association, 2016c). The staff members involved in the alleged abuse were not removed from patient care immediately and were permitted to work one week past the incident. The primary reason for not properly reporting these issues was that the nurse was “so busy that she did not think about it” (Ohio Health Care Association, 2016b, p. 2). “

The Long-Term Care Act was to benefit and work with seniors to improve their overall well-being. The Long-Term Care Homes Act guarantees to help residents living within the long-term care system to receive dependable, high-quality, and safe care for the residents. It is often common for seniors to adjust when placed in long-term care as this is a new and challenging transition for the senior and their families. The commonplace goal is to have a long-term care home environment where residents feel comfortable and at home, where residents are treated with the respect they deserve, and have the proper supports and services that cherish to their particular needs for their overall health and well-being. These services are physical and mental health related services- especially one that relates to the Community Worker Program such as Community and Social Workers that are crucial in a senior’s life often.

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.

health problems to assist nursing home staff with the provision of appropriate care. The facility

“The Palace” is located in the heart of the gables. It is one of the top notch awarded nursing home facilities for seniors stated by many families. Currently being an employee at this facility, I am learning the frightful stories of senior living. Even the Palace one of the most expensive, awarded senior living is actually a terrible place for the elderly. Especially, working at the Front Desk as the receptionist, I have seen firsthand how these poor seniors are forced into these haunted “luxurious” homes. The marble of the building has been often a misleading reason for placing their parent or grandparent in such terrible care. Most humans tend to judge by the appearance of the nursing homes rather than further investigating any violations that the facilities may have. From my own experience with my grandmother, I know it can be very difficult to take care of a senior citizen, especially when they suffer from various conditions and are just not safe in their home. Once adults become seniors, they require a lot of attention and assistance, which is hard when running a whole household and a career. But placing your loved one in one of these facilities can just shorten the amount of time they have to live. Also, it can be very expensive. Lastly, nursing home makes seniors feel the lack of freedom.

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.

The elderly are our foundation and our youth are the building blocks to our nation. Some elderly have no medical problems, some are autistic, and many are handicapped. Nursing homes are a place where the elderly can live when

3) The three plagues of nursing home as mentioned by Bill Thomas were boredom, loneliness and helplessness. What came to mind when he outlined them was how much I agreed with him. This is what I have experienced firsthand as a nurse working with the elderly. Many of them are placed in front of the nursing station for the whole shift because of the lack of things to entertain them. For many of them, the day only consists of eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom.

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

anything from insufficient protection and fire hazards, to poor food storage and preparation, to inadequate staffing hours. More distrubingly, “20% of nursing homes abused, neglected, or mistreated residents in almost half of all states for the second consecutive year, says the report card.” Fox, Stevenson (2014).

Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.

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?

As the healthcare system in this country has changed, so have traditional nursing homes. Families have the right to expect that their loved ones will be taken care of by professionals in a caring environment. Unfortunately, may people are being abused and neglected in nursing homes. It is very clear that abuse is a serious problem among nursing home patients, and something needs to be done to put a stop to it.

The predominance of residents in nursing homes are long- term, meaning they will never recover enough to be on their own again. For every 100 residents there are 35 that will die in the nursing home and 37 will transfer to a hospital before dying (Day). This does not mean that it was the facilities fault, it just shows that many patients are already reaching their final days when they are placed in a nursing home. People should not expect the nursing homes to revitalize every single resident, considering most are in there for extreme health problems.