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“Nursing Homes” Nursing Home Neglect In the piece “Attack on the Elderly,” included in the book “Off with Their Heads” by author Dick Morris, Morris uses substantial evidence to share with us, the national phenomenon that is occurring in America’s nursing homes. The chapter explains the abuse, neglect, and torture that is going on in America’s seventeen thousand nursing homes today. Over 3. million elderly people are said to be living in America’s nursing homes; throughout the seventeen thousand nursing homes, millions of people are being abused, sexually assaulted, neglected, and even tortured. This makes us wonder–Who is actually being put in charge of taking care of America’s elderly? Just as it is stated in the piece, “these places are constantly understaffed, hazardous, filthy and unsanitary, overmedicate residents, and even employ convicted criminals. ” Although we have these issues in today’s nursing homes, no one has yet to come up with a just solution.
I, in fact, know this because in the last year my grandfather was placed in a local nursing home here in Espanola, NM, where there is constant evidence of not enough staff members, impatience displayed with residents, over medication, as well as an unsanitary environment. Nursing home employees seem to vent their anger or impatience with residents by yelling at them, roughly handling them, and fail to complete their duties as caregivers. Just the other day, I came across my grandfather who seemed to be totally out of it. As if to be heavily sedated. He has good and bad days” the family says, yet when he has bad days, he doesn’t talk, stares at the floor, can’t feed himself, or do anything else for himself, for that matter. This seems to me like they over medicate him to make their jobs easier. Whether it makes caregivers jobs easier, there is a time to medicate a patient, not just doing it to simplify someone’s job. Working with the elderly is a very rough job. It is as if we are taking care of babies, all over again, except harder. But my opinion is if you don’t like it, don’t do it!
Work somewhere else, but don’t take anger out on those who are innocent and incapable of caring for themselves. These people are “getting paid regardless of the quality of care they provide,” just as it states by Steve Vanore, a spokesman for Wilkes & McHugh law firm. It seems as though these employees put up a front while people are visiting the nursing homes, but as far as the caregivers thinking that family members or visitors are not observant to all of this, we are. Some residents themselves will tell you this???if they aren’t fearful of what may result..
Just the other day while visiting my grandfather, the residents were eating and an elderly woman asked very politely for a coffee cup. The employee raised her voice and said “No, I’m busy! ” But as I observed she was not doing so much sitting down. The old woman by the name of Emily, got up and got a coffee cup for my grandfather, herself and two other residents seated with her at her table, and simply said “eh pendejo! ” It brought me to laughter that this fragile looking old woman didn’t care what they thought, but it also made me wonder why someone so sweet acted like this with the nursing home employees.
I’ve seen the way they treat other residents, and it bothers me to know my grandfather, along with many others are being wrongfully treated when they are there to receive care; hense the term nursing Nursing Home. I constantly see Emily getting silverware, placing bibs, and helping out other residents while she needs help herself, yet employees fail to complete their duties. I could go on and on of what is seen while visiting my grandfather, but as far as voicing my opinion toward the home, I fear they will treat him the same way I have seen other residents being treated.
This saddens me deeply, and makes me wish I could do so much more to help not only my grandfather, but the residents he lives with. Unfortunately he is married to a woman who doesn’t allow us to move him to another home, (which is not my grandmother) and does not care how he is treated. It is unfortunate, and hurts me that we as a family cannot do so much as putting him in a better facility. I hope one day we as a country can treat our elders with the care they need, and not neglect what has given us our future. By Dalene E. Lucero