As If Anyone Has The Slightest Doubt The Nursing Home System Needs Dismantled
There's a really great article running on The Cincinnati Enquirer about the deplorable conditions at the Westside Health Care Center and how the inspection system has broken down almost completely.
My mother stays at a similar facility in the suburbs of Boise, Idaho and, although her conditions are not as bad as they describe in this article, there is something badly, badly broken about our nursing home system.
It's fascinating the way they mention that this current system was supposed to be an improvement over the state mental hospitals of a couple of generations ago, but really disturbing things continue to happen.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but I suspect it's something along the lines of what was done in the dismantling of the orphanages and the homes for the developmentally disabled - something along the lines groups homes and/or foster care needs to be arranged for older and disabled adults who are unable to care for themselves on their own.
Not that there aren't problems with this system too - vis a vis Marcus Fiesel - but if you're too disabled to safely stay in your own home you should at least have A home instead of being treated like livestock.
Axinar's Posts
1 Comments:
Nursing homes today can barely meet the very basic needs of the elderly, & more often than not, they fail doing that. The finger can be pointed in many different directions. The resident aides are inadequately trained. The Director of Nursing has been away from floor duty for years & doesn't have the first idea of advances in the geriatric field, the duty nurses are strapped to the desks doing paperwork for the residents, there's the perpetual motion employees' revolving door & heaven forbid when the shifts are staffed by temp medical help!
Then there's these evil Administrators. These people have ice coursing through their veins. You complain to them once, they will see to it that your elder gets transferred to another facility. Let's don't forget the nameless, faceless individuals who sit in the corporate offices, trimming costs of resident care while raking in private dollars & taxpayer funding, all at the dire expense of our most fragile, our elderly.
Not only is the inspections process broken down, the entire concept of nursing homes in this country are irretrievably damaged. They can barely care for our America's Greatest Generation, those who won't utter a complaint & they are absolutely ill-equipped to handle the baby boomer generation. The bulk of these cash cow operations will not survive under the burden of spoiled, demanding, discerning baby boomers.
As long as there are strong, shady nursing home lobbyists, Mom, Grandfather & Aunt Mabel don't stand a chance of a clean, safe & secure residence in a nursing home! Former Governor Bob Taft also helped seal the protection of nursing homes in their neglect & abuse of the residents. Oh, he covered them up nice & cozy. There's serious caps put on lawsuits filed by families who have had their loved ones mistreated in these dumps. These warehouses called nursing homes rise like cream to the top of the bottle, while inconsolable families have to settle for pennies & deal with the nightmares, the guilt & the grief forever.
Every taxpayer has a dog in this fight. Our money is being poured into these cesspools. It's time for the public to stand up & demand better care for our elderly who need round the clock care that cannot always be provided in their comfortable homes.
Post a Comment
<< Home