Nursing Home Problems Likely To Continue As Long Facilities Continue To Treat Staff Like Second Class Citizens
The recent defeat of an Indiana Bill that would have set minimum staffing standards for nursing home care is a real slap in the face for both nursing home patients and nursing home staff. Under the terms of HB 1412, sponsored by Representative Clyde Kersey (D- Terre Haute), Indiana nursing homes would be required to hire at least one CNA for every six patients during the day and one CNA for every nine patients at night. The resulting staffing ratios would have provided nursing home patients with at least 3.3 hours of care each day. Certainly, most will look at...
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Abusive Events In Adult Homes Go Unreported & Unprosecuted
A recent article in The Seattle Times presented a sad, but realistic, glimpse into the abusive and neglectful conditions found in many adult homes in Washington. As people look for additional living options instead of traditional nursing homes, adult group homes (characterized as facilities that care for six or few people) theoretically provide an attractive alternative offering more flexibility and a less-expensive alternative to nursing homes. However, as the Times investigation points out, the adult home facilities are riddled with situations involving apparent abuse and neglect-- that are frequently brushed aside. Times reporters determined that more than 357 adult family...
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"Home Care Nursing" Doesn't Mean "No Care Nursing"
As the number of older adults increases, families are faced with the question of where their parents and grandparents will receive the best care. The answer for many families is to keep their family members at home. Many older adults who live at home require home health services, home nursing services, and in-home support services in order to maintain a high quality of life. Although home care nursing affords seniors more flexibility, the lack of a structured setting makes them particularly susceptible to elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation-- especially at the hands of unqualified or dangerous in-home caregivers. About 7.5...
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Is Adult Day Care A Reasonable Alternative To Nursing Home Care?
For families and individuals who provide care for older adults, adult day care centers or adult day services can be an important tool in providing adequate care. Providing round-the-clock care for an elderly loved one can be a huge, but worthwhile time commitment. Adult day care centers can provide a much needed break for caregivers, while offering elderly adults therapeutic services. Adult day service is the direct care and supervision of adults 60 years of age and over in a community-based setting for the purpose of providing personal attention and promoting social, physical, and emotional well-being in a structured setting....
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Now That We Rate Nursing Homes, Is It Time To Rate Other Adult-Care Facilities?
Families looking for facilities to care for their loved ones in North Carolina may begin having an easier time selecting an adequate adult day care, assisted living facility (ALF) or residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE) after the state implements a new rating system. Similar to the well-publicized Medicare-rating system for nursing homes, North Carolina will rate assisted living centers and adult group homes on a four star system. Unlike a current three-star system currently in place, the four-star system is intended to more accurately categorize facilities according to the quality of the care they provide. Additionally, the newer...
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Mentally Disabled Patients Composing A Larger Portion Of Nursing Homes Population. Is Your Loved One At Risk?
Nursing home facilities often house young and middle-aged residents suffering from mental illness (including schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder) with older nursing home residents. In some cases, this has led to violence against already frail elderly residents. Younger mentally ill people now make up more than 9% of the nation’s almost 1.4 million nursing home residents. Last year, there were almost 125,000 young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illnesses living in nursing homes in the United States. This was a 41% increase from 2002, when only 89,000 mentally ill people ages 22 to 64 lived in nursing homes. ...
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What's In A Name? Are Large Nursing Home Chains Intentionally Attempting To Deceive The Public When It Comes To Corporate Ownership?
One of the things I do each morning is to look through my google reader account to see the new updates regarding nursing home news and information. Today, I glanced through the news stories to find another unfortunate report regarding the alleged abuse of a patient at an Ohio nursing home. You can read about this report of nursing abuse here. As I read the article, where abuse was alleged to have occurred at Heartland Lansing Nursing Home, I realized how deceptive the names of nursing homes can be to the general public. In the case of Heartland, it is...
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Extendicare Nursing Home Added To Government 'Watch List' Following Abuse Of Resident
The Richmond Health and Rehabilitation Complex, otherwise known as 'Madison Manor' has been added to the Special Focus Facility List following the disclosure of a videotape nursing assistants at the facility physically abusing, failing to provide food and failing to clean an 84-year-old resident at the facility in August. The family of the woman placed a hidden camera in the woman's room after they discovered more than 30 unexplained bruises on her body during a visit. The Kentucky Attorney General filed criminal charges against three of the CNA's involved in incident and one has already pleaded guilty. Madison Manor dismissed...
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Why Didn't I Think Of This?
As a father of an active toddler, I am well versed in the importance of keeping close tabs on him at all times. We keep a video monitor on him to make sure he doesn't harm himself. Video monitoring has even gone to the streets in Chicago where police can monitor street traffic in crime ridden areas. The time has come for monitoring to take the jump to nursing homes. "Granny Cams" as Attorney David Terry describes in the Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog would be an important part of protecting our nursing home residents from nursing home abuse from...
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Caught On Tape: 90-Year-Old Man Beaten By Home Nurse
Think the term 'nursing home abuse' is made up by lawyers? Cameras don't lie... ...
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