It has been estimated that with the “baby boom” generation now approaching retirement age, nearly 25% of the elderly population aged 65 years or older will spend part of their life residing within a nursing home. While the elderly should both expect and receive excellent, loving care at a facility where they will possibly spend the remainder of their life in, most patients are instead abused and neglected. They are treated not with dignity and compassion, but with contempt and ridicule. With such a large influx of potential patients looming on the horizon, nursing homes desperately need to change the means by which they function and treat their patients.
In the Journal of Women and Aging, a book review was recently conducted on a source concerning the ritual of abuse that currently exists within nursing home systems. The studies actually found that abuse suffered by the elderly most often occurred through four different ways: medical abuse, personal abuse, emotional negligence, and verbal abuse. Many caretakers within the study saw their nursing home residents as “‘unemotional work products’ rather than people in need”. More often than not, this abuse occurs because of a nursing home’s <a href="”>understaffing problems or lack of adequately trained staff. When a facility is understaffed and incapable, they cannot provide the proper amount of care or attention that a resident might need which could result in the development of pressure sores, falls, and even death. The elderly are also more susceptible to dehydration and malnutrition and need to be properly monitored to ensure that they keep up their daily intake.
What is extremely frustrating is that with enough attention and proper care, all of these diseases and health issues can be preventable. The correlation drawn between adequate staffing and the prevention of diseases from developing is not pure conjecture, but has been proven in various studies. One such study highlighted that if nursing home workers are actually trained through a mandatory program, overall communication is improved and hospitalizations can be prevented from occurring in the first place. There is a general consensus that America’s elder care industry is currently broken by the blatant abuse that occurs every day in nursing homes.
The Patients’ Bill of Rights claims that any skilled nursing facility has the obligation to provide their residents with a safe living environment, and to treat them with respect and consideration. It is a grossly unfair situation to the residents of such nursing homes that unfortunately cannot protect themselves from being neglected.
If you are worried that your loved ones might be currently placed in a nursing home that participates in elderly abuse rituals or neglect due to understaffing, please contact us for a free consultation concerning your situation. Our team of dedicated lawyers at the Law Offices of Ben Yeroushalmi specializes in cases dealing with nursing home neglect and we are proud to offer our services in nursing home litigation to those in need of it.