Elder Abuse in Long Term Care: A Growing Problem

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Introduction/Objective: Elder abuse, first noted in medical literature in the 1970's as “granny battering”, is becoming an increasingly recognized national problem. The Senate Special Committee on Aging estimates that as many as five million older Americans may be victims of abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation every year, which is estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars annually in health care, social services, and investigative and legal costs, as well as lost income and assets. Elder abuse in long term care facilities has long been recognized and continues to gain the attention of both regional and national regulatory committees and administrators, medical professionals, and the media. Elder abuse in nursing facilities has been documented in several surveys. One example is an October 2010 report by the University of California, San Francisco using data from the federal On-Line Survey and Certification System (OSCAR) from 2004 to 2009, in which 15,658 nursing homes with 1.66 million beds were surveyed by state agencies. The report notes that in 2009, 24.7 percent of the nation's nursing facilities received deficiencies for poor quality of care causing direct harm or injury to residents and 45 percent of nursing homes failed to ensure a safe environment for their residents, representing a 3 percent increase since 2004. Another study surveyed 577 nurses and nurses aides from 32 nursing homes and showed 70 percent had witnessed a fellow nurse or aide yelling at a patient in anger and 33 percent had done this themselves. A survey of 80 non demented nursing home residents revealed that 44 percent felt they had been physically abused and 48 percent felt they had been handled roughly by nursing home staff. Recognizing risk factors, understanding the definitions of, and knowing how to report elder abuse through the education of nursing home employees has become an accepted form of intervention and warrants the attention of healthcare professionals both nationally and locally.