The Miami Herald has been running an I-Team investigation series about the abuse of the elderly. It is a good report. I was thinking, while reading about a woman who fell 11 times, how do you prevent that? These old people don't listen. My mother-in-law insisted on trying to walk on her own (she was not mentally impaired) all the time, and fell a bunch of times. An aide can only be at her side so much of the time (we had one 24 hours) and when they are in a facility they have to wait for an aide to come. Most old people I know don't know how to wait. So what are these facilities suppose to do to stop them from walking on their own? Tie them up? Drug them? In the ALF my mother-in-law was at, they wouldn't put the walker near her. She complained bitterly about that to anyone who would listen. That is another thing, she complained so much it was hard to tell what was important. She cried wolf about 100 times a day, most of it was about inefficient aides. And she fell 6 or 7 times and she was far from abused. Anyway, this is just an observation on why these ALF's have it hard.
I am also trying to figure out if the Miami Herald is getting any mileage out of this subject, it is so depressing. Do people in Florida care about seniors? I think they care a lot more about the price of gas. I think the Herald is banking on journalism awards with this one.
5 comments:
I don't know what the answer is. My father was moved from a nursing home to a ALF and died really fast.
I lived out of town. By the time my sister and I started to realize that there were issues, he was dead. His wife didn't want to continue the inquiry. My sister felt like they killed him. Reading this series has made me sad and I would never let her read it as she would go nuts with grief.
I think it's just something to write about. There's a large elderly population, and even if most of them are still capable of being out on their own, I'm sure they think about the future. Honestly though, I doubt they'll win any awards for this one. It's all doom-and-gloom and it could be written better. I might be wrong though, I've only read the first one about the nut who burnt a facility down and started bashing people in the head as they tried to escape.
I don't know all her story, but it seems that if she had to complain bitterly and constantly, and they still wouldn't put the walker near her, that is a type of abuse. The walker is designed to assist someone in being ambulatory. If they had listened and she could have moved more, she would have become stronger/more balanced and not so prone to falling. It requires tremendous patience and compassion to deal with the elderly. Sadly, aides are underpaid, so some aides do it because they can't get any other type of job, and not because they care about the vulnerable people in their charge.
This is a tough one. ALF's are really good at emptying your parents' pocketbooks. You move them in and next thing you know, you have to go through their pharmacy and use their services. Those services are often priced way above what you could do on your own. I had a friend who had terrible experiences at a local Kendall facility. Her mom even got scabies. Nurses were suppose to give basic services. She had to hire her own. It seemed like a rip off. It is unfair to group them all together, but one has to be careful.
I have come to realize this - old age is fatal. You will eventually die from it. I mean this with no disrespect and send wishes to the commenters who recently lost their loved ones.
you place your parent in one of these places and they promise to take care of them; all they care about is the money they can squeeze out of every individual. I live a couple of houses next to one, and I hear workers scream and talk down to the elderly. I don't even want to think of waht goes on inside the premises. These should be regulated and visited unannounced by the state.
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