Dismal study results for elder care

With age comes a feebleness and vulnerability you may have rarely experienced in the majority of your life. However, when you do begin to live in days where your body doesn’t function properly anymore, and you require the assistance of a caregiver, you certainly hope to find someone or some people with whom you can confidently place your trust. However, if your trust must go to people outside of your family, and you must pay for the day-to-day care you are given, you may have well-founded fears.

According to one report stemming from the results of a few studies, the care given in nursing homes was often sub-par, and this acknowledgment was made by the nursing home workers themselves. In fact, one report from 2010 promised anonymity of those polled and resulted in half of all polled workers admitting to personally mistreating residents. This could be from neglect, physical abuse or mental abuse.

Another study polled residents of nursing homes who needed short-term rehabilitative services through Medicare. Of those polled, more than 30 percent suffered from harm that could have been prevented and which either lengthened their nursing home stay, required intervention to save their lives, put them in the hospital, permanently injured them or ultimately took their lives.

Moreover, that is just short-term residents of nursing homes. Taking a look at the long-term residents in need of care, there are reports of undernourishment, dehydration, misuse of nasogastric tubes, unnecessary suffering from pressure ulcers, excessive drugging, brutality and poor attention given to hygiene needs.

If you live in New York and have suffered nursing home injuries at the hands of your caregivers, you don’t have to suffer in silence, and there is hope. The Long Term Care Community Coalition released a study from 2015. and the state’s Comptroller’s office released an audit with both indicating averages falling below those set nationally for conditions and oversight within New York’s nursing homes. You may benefit from speaking with an in-state attorney focused on personal injury and elder law.

Source: mpnnow.com, “All lives matter – part II,” Aug. 11, 2016