Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Violence in long-term care homes gaining attention

Excerpt from: My Kawartha (click for full article)

 

Public awareness of resident-on-resident attacks at long-term care homes rose in the wake of an attack last week at a Toronto facility that left one elderly woman dead and another beaten. A 72-year-old resident was arrested in connection with the attack.

There is a rally today at Queen's Park organized by Peterborough businessman Camille Parent after his 85-year-old mother was pushed by another resident of her nursing home, leaving her with a broken hip.

Mr. Parent told This Week the rally is a call for the Province to address the lack of funding and staff at homes, something he notes the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has promised since 2003.

Elder Abuse Provisions Included in Violence Against Women Act

Excerpt from: ALFA (click for full article)

 

The recently passed Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 includes language that will help protect seniors from elder abuse.  The law provides $9 million per year in funding for programs which specifically aid women over 50 through the year 2018.

The funding offers grants that may be awarded by the Attorney General, through the Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. The bill states the grants will provide funding that can be used for: training programs to assist in the prosecution of elder abuse, providing or enhancing services for victims of elder abuse, creating or supporting multidisciplinary collaborative community responses to victims of elder abuse, and conducting cross-training for organizations serving victims of elder abuse.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 was passed by the US Senate on February 12, 2013, and was later passed by the House of Representatives on February 28. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on March 7.

According to the Government Accountability Office, reported cases of elder abuse have been on the rise, particularly the financial exploitation of seniors. Recent studies have shown that one in four Americans will be aged 60 or older by 2050, making elder abuse a growing concern for the future.

Sacramento jury slams assisted living firm with $23 million in punitive damages

Excerpt from: The Sacramento Bee (click for full article)

 

The offer came in late last year – $3.5 million, Eric Boice said, if he, his brother and sister would drop the wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit they had filed on behalf of their 82-year-old mother, Joan.

"Then," Boice said in an interview Friday, "nobody would have ever known."

Instead of making a deal with the Emeritus Corp., the Boice family pushed ahead to trial in its fight against the assisted-living giant.

Friday, a Sacramento Superior Court jury came back with a $23 million punitive damage award against Emeritus, which the jury three days earlier had already found guilty of malice, oppression and fraud in the death of Joan Boice.

"We think the jury got it right with the verdicts, and we're hoping that the punitive damage serves as a wake-up call to this company that it needs to change," Eric Boice said in the hallway outside the courtroom. "We've seen places that do it right, that are making a profit, but not at the expense of the people they are trying to serve."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/09/5248716/sacramento-jury-slams-assisted.html#storylink=cpy

If it looks like a pig

Excerpt from: The Independent Living Ideal (click for full article)

 

The latest trend in congregate living is called “Assisted Living.” Presumably, Assisted Living is the perfect alternative for the elderly person who is able to live independently, but because of his or her age, will likely need more care eventually.

When discussing alternatives to nursing home institutional care, many advocates point out that Assisted Living in their state is a viable option. This may be true.  Let’s not forget, however, the lessons we learned with group homes.

Group homes were created in response to abusive institutional care.  Started primarily for people with mental health and developmental disabilities, we soon discovered that if we did not watch out, we were just trading one institutional setting for another. 

Yesterday, the Arizona Department of Health Services closed down two Assisted Living homes because of repeated violations.  In other states, as I said, advocates have only good things to say about Assisted Living.  I suspect that, like in Arizona, some are good and some not so good.  The bottom line is that these are still institutions.

Rise in senior-abuse cases prompts D.A. to step up to protect elderly

Excerpt from: philly.com (click for full article)

 

In Philadelphia and across the nation, elder abuse - physical, financial, sexual or by neglect - is a growing problem, yet it dwells in the shadows of the better-publicized crimes of child abuse and domestic abuse, advocates say.

"Elder abuse here and everywhere is a hidden problem, and it's only going to get bigger, given the demographics of the baby boomers," said Joseph Snyder, of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA), a nonprofit agency that investigates abuse allegations and works to keep the elderly in their homes.

In response to the problem, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has revamped its elder-abuse efforts into the Elder Justice Project to better prosecute perpetrators and better serve victims.

Its director, Deborah Cooper Nixon, tapped by D.A. Seth Williams in December, has been with the office for 21 years, most recently as a homicide prosecutor.

"I think the time is now for elder abuse. I think that people are really looking at this epidemic and asking, 'Why?' They're asking, 'How can we roll up our sleeves and help?' " said Nixon, 48, holding up a thick stack of papers containing the names of hundreds of abuse victims age 60 and older with active cases in the D.A.'s office.

Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announce record-breaking recoveries resulting from joint efforts to combat health care fraud

Excerpt from: HHS.gov (click for full article)

 

Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report showing that for every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations in the last three years, the government recovered $7.90.  This is the highest three-year average return on investment in the 16-year history of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse (HCFAC) Program.

The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered a record $4.2 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, up from nearly $4.1 billion in FY 2011, from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs serving seniors and taxpayers or who sought payments to which they were not entitled.  Over the last four years, the administration’s enforcement efforts have recovered $14.9 billion, up from $6.7 billion over the prior four-year period.  Since 1997, the HCFAC Program has returned more than $23 billion to the Medicare Trust Funds.

These findings, released today in the annual HCFAC Program report, are a result of President Obama making the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse, particularly in health care, a top priority for the administration.

Avoiding Restraints in Hospitalized Older Adults with Dementia

Excerpt from: Try This (click for full article)

 

Use of physical restraints in older adults is associated with poor outcomes: functional decline, decreased peripheral circulation, cardiovascular stress, incontinence, muscle atrophy, pressure ulcers, infections, agitation, social isolation, psychiatric morbidity, serious injuries, and death. Of all patients, older adults with dementia have the highest risk for being restrained when hospitalized. Impaired
memory, judgment, and comprehension contribute to the difficulty these patients have in adapting to the hospital. Patients may try to ‘escape’ or ‘resist’ care because they feel ‘lost’ and afraid, yet language deficits associated with dementia limit their ability to clearly express these concerns. Brain damage associated with dementia also places patients at greater risk for delirium or acute confusional state, further increasing agitation, disorientation and confusion.

 

Weill Cornell Receives Millions to Study Mistreatment of Elders

Excerpt from: The Cornell Daily Sun (click for full article)

 

To combat elder abuse — an issue the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called a “significant public health problem” — Weill Cornell Medical College received a $13.6 million gift from a charitable foundation last month, according to Weill officials. 

The gift will be used to fund more standardized data collection on elder abuse and study effective ways to respond to such forms of abuse, according to Prof. Mark Lachs, medicine, director of the New York City Elder Abuse Center. 

According to the CDC, elder maltreatment includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment and financial abuse of people over the age of sixty.

CUs Often In Difficult Position As Aging Boomers Put Boom In Elder Abuse

Excerpt from: Credit Union Journal (click for full article)

 

The aging of America and a still recovering economy are leading to many more cases of elder financial abuse, creating a problem some say is approaching epidemic proportions for both victims and credit unions that are often in a difficult position.

Seizing the chance to redefine aging

Excerpt from: Healthy Cal (click for full article)

 

I wheeled her over the grass to the spot in the photo. This sick, frail, elderly woman then reached up to the iron fence, pulled herself out of her wheelchair and began rattling it.

At 90 years old. All by herself. One month before her death.

And that is when I took this photo.

What rang in my head at this moment were the words of Peter Reed, executive director of the Pioneer Network, an organization devoted to changing the culture of aging: “The way we treat older adults in this society borrows more from the prison system than it does the healthcare system.”