ELDERLY ABUSE AT NURSING HOMES

Care at Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are facilities that have at least three or more beds at which health care workers (nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses) regularly provide nursing care services for persons unable to care for themselves due to physical or mental health problems, cognitive impairment, or disabilities. Despite extensive governmental regulation, nursing home care has become a social problem that is often synonymous with elder abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and despair. Many Americans see nursing homes as places of last resort for the unwanted elderly—a place where one goes to die. Recent studies by the Institute of Medicine confirm these categorizations: care deficiencies in nursing homes have caused harm to patients, and the numbers of nursing home staff are often not adequate to provide quality care. However, many older people also receive superior care and benefit from the security and stability that nursing homes provide.

Quality of Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are facilities that have at least three or more beds at which health care workers (nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses) regularly provide nursing care services for persons unable to care for themselves due to physical or mental health problems, cognitive impairment, or disabilities. Despite extensive governmental regulation, nursing home care has become a social problem that is often synonymous with elder abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and despair. Many Americans see nursing homes as places of last resort for the unwanted elderly—a place where one goes to die. Recent studies by the Institute of Medicine confirm these categorizations: care deficiencies in nursing homes have caused harm to patients, and the numbers of nursing home staff are often not adequate to provide quality care. However, many older people also receive superior care and benefit from the security and stability that nursing homes provide. (U.S. Census Bureau, 34)

The likelihood of living in a nursing home increases with age. According to the U.S. census in 2000, 1.1 percent of the 65-74 age group live in nursing homes, increasing to 4.7 percent of the 75-84 age group, and greater than 18 percent for those 85 years and older. The majority of older nursing home residents are women (around 75 percent) due in part to the longer lives of women and the reality that most female residents of nursing homes are widowed. Elderly women are more likely than elderly men to be isolated, left without a partner caregiver, increasing the risk of nursing home institutionalization. In terms of race and ethnicity, most nursing home residents are white (around 80 percent, according to the U.S. census) followed by African American at around 10 percent, and an additional 3 percent who are Latino/a, American Indian, or Pacific Islander. The difference in proportion to population rates may be due to different cultural beliefs for the aged, resistance to institutionalization of elderly, and greater kinship and support networks among some minority group members, although nursing home utilization rates for African Americans are increasing and rates for whites are on the decline. (Institute of ...