The Elderly Epidemic

          Did you think that nursing homes were the best back up plan for your grandparents? Well, apparently not. Nursing homes all over America have been facing the biggest epidemic yet that constantly questions the safety and stability of the residents. Are they truly being taken care of properly? 

A nursing home is often described as a medical habitat for individuals that require a specific level of care. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 1.5 million people have been submitted to nursing homes in America. These patients not only require medical and pharmaceutical care, but also emotional, mental, and dietary attention. There are many residents living in a nursing facility that suffer from limited ability to perform certain tasks on their own. Likewise, residents often feel that they have lost control of their own decisions and everyday actions. According to the Elder Justice Roadmap, “high rates of neglect, poor care or preventable adverse events persists in nursing homes and other long term care settings”. So why is this? Why are the elderly being neglected?

Let´s Get To The Root Of This

According to the Inquirer, the reason that nurses at nursing homes are resigning from their jobs is because it has been described as a “burnout of a task”. The depth of epidemic has been observed and depicted as absolute stress. 

• • The theory is that they need to be paid a sufficient amount of money in order to perform the responsibilities of ones’ needs. Nursing home workers are paid a substantially low amount of $10.50 an hour. The staff demand more money from the government before they “truly care for their patients”.

  • An astounding 13,000 people responded that they are overworked, underpaid, and exhausted! It is seen to be extremely stressful for the workers mentally and physically. 

  • Take daycare workers as an example. The ratio within day cares often function under a 1:4 ratio (1 daycare worker to 4 kids). However, there are certain nursing homes that carry a 1:8 (1 nursing care worker to 8 residents) ratio, if that. This is a mandatory issue within nursing homes in which they perform activities, eat, etc all while being understaffed. This indicates that people who are not able to function as easily will have to be pushed around with the use of only one worker.

When interviewed, a resigned worker from Silver Stream in Penllyn claimed that she had to “roll out every single one of those heavy wheelchairs by myself so that they were able to go on smoke break”. Where were others? Someone to help? This questions not only staff, but management and corporation. This makes others question if organization even resides within the homes.

What Can We Do About This?

There are certain steps that we can take to better the companies of these nursing homes. If you believe your loved one or family member is being abused or neglected in any way, the nursing home and its staff should most definitely be penalized for their actions. A negligence suit may be brought if there is a failure to provide a reasonably safe environment, failure to maintain adequate health and safety policies or failure to provide the required standard of care and medical treatment. 

State-specific laws will vary, and as such, consulting with a lawyer practicing in elder abuse prevention will be of great help to protecting yourself or your patient. 

These steps will not only reassure the patient that they’re okay, but you’ll receive stability yourself. Taking steps to change to such an unfortunate epidemic is the only change we can start with. Raising awareness to this issue is the first step to a major problem that people often ignore.