| Families turn to nursing homes to provide care and | | | | home neglect and abuse is wide spread and it cuts |
| attention for their aging loved ones. But all too often | | | | across racial, socio-economic and geographic lines. |
| a family's reasonable expectation for medical | | | | Across the United States, nursing home abuse is |
| professionalism and human kindness is met instead by | | | | increasing. Between 1996 and 2000, for example, the |
| the heart-breaking reality of nursing home abuse. | | | | number of nursing homes cited for abuse during their |
| According to a 2001 Congressional report, one-third | | | | annual inspections more than doubled. |
| of the United States' 1,600 nursing homes were cited | | | | Even more concerning than the number of reported |
| for an abuse violation. | | | | abuse violations, however, are the incidents that go |
| From Maine to California and from Colorado to | | | | unreported. Officials believe that abuse is grossly |
| Texas, the number of nursing home abuse violations | | | | underreported. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's |
| is growing every year. In the two-year period | | | | disease, dementia and paralysis are at particular risk. |
| between January 1999 and January 2001, more than | | | | Not only does their impairment prevent them from |
| 9,000 nursing home abuse reports were filed. Of | | | | communicating their abuse to loved ones, it also |
| these reports, over 2,500 described an incident | | | | renders them helpless in preventing their future |
| severe enough to place a residents' health and even | | | | attacks. |
| life in immediate jeopardy. | | | | There are over 18,000 nursing homes in the United |
| Reported types of abuse include sexual, physical and | | | | States today, which house more than 1.6 million |
| verbal. Another significant area of abuse is nursing | | | | people. Over the next twenty years, the number of |
| home neglect, which can range from a caregivers' | | | | nursing home residents is set to double, with the |
| failure to provide medications according to the | | | | aging of millions of baby boomers. As this population |
| doctor-prescribed schedule to withholding food and | | | | needs outside care, the number of residents grows, |
| even water from patients. | | | | and with that growth will come new opportunities for |
| Dehydration and death have occurred as a result of | | | | abuse. |
| this type of neglect. Abuse violations are a serious | | | | No city or state is immune; abuse statistics |
| concern in nursing homes across all fifty of the United | | | | encompass every geographic location and type of |
| States, and are particularly egregious since elderly and | | | | facility. Regardless of where you live, nursing home |
| disabled residents are unable to protect themselves | | | | abuse is a real and imminent danger for America's |
| from an attack. | | | | elderly. |
| According to the 2001 Congressional report, nursing | | | | |