Articles Posted in Dependent Adult Abuse

The Washington Post is out with an interesting article about a growing national trend – younger patients are ending up in nursing homes. According to the article, approximately one in seven nursing home residents in the United States is under the age of 65, a number that has grown significantly just in the last eight years. This development has raised all kinds of issues for the nursing homes that take these younger patients like Adam Martin, at 26-year-old quadriplegic who is living in a nursing home.

“It’s just a depressing place to live,” Martin says. “I’m stuck here. You don’t have no privacy at all. People die around you all the time. It starts to really get depressing because all you’re seeing is negative, negative, negative.”

Older residents have their own issues with it as well, and frequently complain about loud music and rowdy visitors. And while most nursing homes try to house younger residents together, new steps are being taken to address this growing problem.

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Disability Rights California, a non-profit that advocates for the rights of the disabled, recently released a report finding that the physical abuse of disabled adults in nursing homes are frequently not treated as crimes. The study analyzed 12 cases, including the following

• For months, a middle aged nursing home resident suffering from cerebral palsy with cognitive impairment was paraded naked and soaking wet in front of others after being forced by staff to take cold showers. Despite many witnesses, nothing was done.

• A disabled resident in his 40s was punched in the mouth by a staff member and then slapped, drawing blood. When he complained, it took days for the facility to report it to authorities. No charges were brought.

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