Mentally ill people ages 22 to 64 make up 9 percent of the nation’s 1.4 million nursing home residents, a number that has climbed 6 percent since 2002. That increase is attributed to the closing of state mental institutions and a shortage of hospital psychiatric beds.

Allowing mentally ill patients, many with a history of aggression toward others, to live in nursing homes with the elderly has had tragic results. In 2003, a 23-year-old woman was accused of starting a fire in the nursing home where she lived, which killed 16 fellow residents. The woman was found incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a mental institution.

Earlier this year, a 21-year-old nursing home resident diagnosed with bipolar disorder with aggression was charged with raping a 69-year-old resident. Seventy-seven-year-old nursing home resident Ivory Jackson died a brutal death when his mentally ill roommate – 30 years his junior – bashed his face in with a clock radio.

“Sadly, we’re seeing the tragic results of the failure of federal and state governments to provide appropriate treatment and housing for those with mental illnesses and to provide a safe environment for the frail elderly,” said Janet Wells, director of public policy for the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, to the Associated Press.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Mentally ill threaten safety of nursing home patients

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The victim, 54, was a resident of Raintree Convalescent Hospital. He suffered from dementia and schizophrenia which caused him to have difficulty swallowing his food. When he moved into the home in June 2006, doctors ordered that he follow a soft diet and required supervision while he ate as he “stuffs his mouth with food.”

On Nov. 19, 2008, the man was given a lunch of spaghetti with two whole meatballs, tossed salad, roll, two cookies and milk. A certified nurse’s aide served the man in his room and then left him alone to eat. While the man ate, the meatballs became lodged in his throat. He walked out of his room and up to a nurse in the hallway. He was pale and unable to speak and then collapsed. Nurses performed the Heimlich maneuver but were unable to dislodge the food from the man’s throat. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed but the man died.

The cook and the nurse’s aide were fired for negligence and the nursing home conducted a dietary training for all nursing staff. Though new procedures were put in place, the home received a AA citation from the California Department of Public Health. AA citations are rare and are the most serious penalty a California nursing home can receive, according to the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home receives steepest penalty in resident’s death

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The AARP and trial lawyers say that the nursing home industry is simply trying to protect itself at a time when reports of violations at nursing homes are running rampant in the media. The opposition already has caused the powerful nursing home industry to revamp its “The Nursing Home Patient Protection Act of 2008” proposal, raising its proposed cap from $300,000 to $500,000. The lobby group also removed language opposed by AARP that would have allowed nursing homes to require their patients to sign arbitration agreements to prevent lawsuits and to require nursing home suits to have the same legal restrictions as medical malpractice claims.

According to a study conducted by the nursing home industry, Tennessee nursing homes paid nearly $5,000 on average per patient on liability costs, whereas states that had tort reform paid about a quarter of that on average per patient. A nursing home representative said that the mounting costs paid by nursing homes to defend lawsuits eats into profits that could be invested to improve patient care.

Tennessee Rep. Mike Turner, a firefighter who fought the 2003 Tennessee nursing home fire that killed 16 people, says the caps would open the door for more negligence. “These are our most vulnerable people and they earned the right to be treated with dignity in their old age,” Turner said to the paper. “I just think by capping it, we’ve done a disservice to them.”

The nursing home industry and trial lawyers have agreed to meet later this week to discuss a reasonable compromise.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Tennessee nursing homes lobby for caps on damage claims

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Other states on the “worst reporting” list are Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Results of the report were published in the New York Times May 15, which says the study “reveals a widespread ‘understatement of deficiencies’ including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications, and nursing home resident abuse.”

The study was requested by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis., Chairman, Senate Special Committee on Aging). They have introduced a bill to upgrade nursing home care and increase penalties for federal standards violations.

Beasley Allen hears from people every day who are shocked and grieved to find their loved ones have suffered at the hands of the very people they expect to provide expert care and compassion. Certainly, increasing penalties seems like a step in the right direction.

David P. Sloane, a spokesperson for the AARP, which lobbies for older Americans, praises the effort, quoted by the Times as saying it is “one of the most significant nursing home reform initiatives” in two decades.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Alabama Among Worst

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), no one knows precisely how many older Americans are being abused, neglected, or exploited. This is because there are no official national statistics.

Adding to the problem, there are no federal standards that govern residential care facilities, which are known by more than 30 different names across the country, perhaps most commonly as assisted living facilities.

In her testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance in June 2002, Catherine Hawes, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management School or Rural Public Health at Texas A&M University system Health Science Center, pointed out that there has never been a systematic study of the prevalence of abuse in nursing homes. She said much of what we know is based on individual stories or focus group interviews with residents and families.

But what we do know is frightening.

• According to the best available estimates, between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or older have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection.
  Only 1 in 14 incidents of elder abuse in domestic settings come to the attention of authorities.
  For every one case of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, or self-neglect reported to authorities, about five more go unreported.

The major types of elder abuse are physical abuse, which includes inappropriate use of drugs and physical restraints; sexual abuse; emotional or psychological abuse, which, in addition to verbal attacks or intimidation includes enforced social isolation and treating an older person like an infant; neglect; abandonment; and financial or material exploitation.

In 2003, state Long Term Care Ombudsman programs nationally investigated 20,673 complaints of abuse, gross neglect, and exploitation on behalf of nursing home and board and care residents. Physical abuse was the most common type reported.

Another study released in 2001 reported that based on information collected between January 1999 and January 2000 by a nursing home complaint database, 10 percent of nursing homes in the U.S. were cited for abuse violations that caused actual harm to residents or placed them in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury.

If you or a loved one suffered a serious injury due to nursing home abuse or neglect, you have specific legal rights. For a free legal consultation, please contact us today

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › 2 million elderly victims

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.