Nursing Home Negligence And Abuse

A White Paper On Nursing Home Elder Abuse And Neglect

Elderly sick people, who all through their young years have strived to improve the lot of their families, face very tragic consequences in their twilight years. Elder abuse and neglect is rampant in nursing homes in the US and it is a symbol of the sad failing of society as a whole. Societal mores of exploitation of weak, helpless, and dependent persons by nursing homes tell an often-repeated story of the sad travesty of justice and equality.

Proper care or the lack of it towards elders begins at home. What we do not provide the elders in our homes cannot be expected to be provided them in nursing homes. When we ourselves do not show due regard and consideration for the condition of old parents in our home, we have no rights as sons and daughters to expect this from staff in nursing homes and other assisted living facilities.

After all every staff member, who works in such an employment is a son or daughter of old parents. It is only when they show proper sensitivity towards their own parents at home that anybody can expect them to show the same to infirm elderly inmates in nursing homes as part of their jobs.

Competiveness, inflation, and individualistic failings and frustrations all get reflected in the culpable ignorance that we show to our elders in nursing homes. Moreover, care providers in nursing homes know that in the foreseeable future, they themselves will become dependent on others. It will be expected by them then that adequate nursing support be provided to enable them to sustain living in old age with a fair bit of dignity and care.

However, some staff members in nursing homes do not care enough about the inmates as much as they should. They only realize their mistake when they face the same abuse and neglect in their old age that their parents may have had faced earlier.

The US government has already put its best foot forward by enacting laws and putting in place a redressal mechanism through use of legal medicine to counter abuse and neglect in nursing homes. However, that falls woefully short of what is required.

It is much more required to employ only those people in nursing homes who have demonstrated independently-assessed care and love towards not only their own parents but also for other people. By doing such assessment as also including social work performed to improve the community as an important eligibility factor, the promoters of nursing homes will have rendered yeoman's service to the senior citizens of the country.

Moreover, nursing home employees should be made to undergo intensive psychological profiling periodically. This is to assess if any adverse behavioral changes are noticed in them that make them prone to elder abuse and neglect. In case the findings detect adverse behavioral changes, the concerned employees can no longer be entrusted with the charge of nursing home inmates.

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