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Nursing homes provides needed care |
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
What kind of human being would stick their poor, old mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle or other elderly family member in a nursing home to be forgotten?
That’s the sort of question many people might have to answer – or even ask for themselves – when dealing with an elderly loved one.
We’ve
all heard the nursing home “horror stories,” such as senior citizens
being left in their rooms without any attention for long periods of
time or stories about elderly sweatshops.
One such incident was published in a local Boston, Mass., newspaper
about a former nursing assistant charged with abusing an Alzheimer’s
patient in 1990.
The assistant was seen to have pushed the patient against a bathroom wall, hold him by the shoulders and hit him.
How often have we also heard the terrible stories of elderly abuse and
neglect by members of their own family and in their own homes?
CNN told the story in July 2001 of a 78-year-old woman shot in the head
by her estranged husband after years of being abused not fighting back
out of both fear and weakness.
You might say to yourself and others now, that you would never even
consider placing your relative in a nursing home, but down the line,
that could change.
Picture this: you’re a single-parent with kids who need attention, a
job to pay the bills, a long list of other day-to-day issues to take
care of, and on top of all that, an elderly relative living in your
home
that needs constant attention.
All of a sudden, the decision to place that relative in a nursing home
because it is the most convenient thing to do becomes a situation where
choosing not to, means leaving that loved one to sit alone
possibly more neglected than if they were to go into a home.
Many elderly need constant attention, and in a lot of cases, medical
attention that really only trained professionals can provide.
I’m not saying people should be complacent about what kind of facility
they choose to place their loved one in or blasé to any degree about
the whole affair.
Yes, the proper research and questions should be looked into and asked,
but at the end of the day, sometimes the best thing to do for all
parties involved is to place that loved one in the hands of people
whose job, literally, is taking care of these people.
Another consequence of taking on the huge responsibility of caring for
an elderly relative in your own home is possible resentment down the
line.
Everyone knows taking care of a parent or grandparent would be no
picnic and can lead to resenting that person for taking away from your
life.
This can also affect children in the home who would be exposed to
sometimes pretty adult situations and who can often end up being the
neglected ones.
Some questions that can be asked when choosing an old-age home can be
found at Web sites like the National Center for Elder Abuse.
Some suggestions are “assuring coordination between law enforcement,
adult protection and nursing home advocacy groups and the facility.”
Another website, www.safety-forun.com, has an article about nursing
home abuse that suggests “looking into the facility’s history, the
number of staff and how many staff work each shift, and also
keeping open communication with administrators.”
If properly done, placing the your elderly relative in a nursing home can be a true act of love.
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