Profiteering, Abuse, Neglect At US Nursing & Assisted Living Facilities

In 1968 Antony Armstrong-Jones published a documentary "Don't Count The Candles" regarding the tragedy of senior confinement. An 80 year old man was taken against his will to a nursing home.
One scene showed him wistfully looking out the window as his relative left, one silent tear sliding down his cheek.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reported in 2020 that many nursing and assisted living institutions are running on a shoestring, with understaffing while money is siphoned to owners' pockets, owners who ask Medicaid and Medicare for more money.

1.Excessive Profiteering B H Gray writes that 75% of these facilities are now for-profit ones.

2. Shoestring understaffing causes neglect and sometimes premature death.

3. The lack of ethical supervision from federal agencies, owners, and managers generates abuse from yelling at residents to physical assaults, chemical and physical restraints.

4. Substandard food is a complaint across the US. Some facilities are spending as little as $6.00 a day per person, less than prisons.

5. Noise .. talking and laughing loudly during midnight shift Loud sounds interfere with the sleep and health of residents.

6. Constant interruptions

7. Incarceration Living behind locked doors without the freedom to leave is imprisonment

8. Lack of privacy, including conjugal rights

9. Theft

10. Denial of the right to refuse medication or vaccines. In the last 4 years, NPR
reports, the right to refuse dangerous antipsychotic drugs has declined. The FDA requires a label on antipsychotics (which should be called propsychotics) warning of possible homicides or suicides. Many of these medications cause a permanent shaking, the medical term abbreviated to 'tardiff'.

11. The right to refuse breakfast because residents have never eaten breakfast or because they want to sleep is not honored.

12. Abuse of Durable Power of Attorney

13. Premature Deaths: Poor air filtration systems, food poisoning, constant noise and interruptions, nurse and caregiver understaffing, abuse, isolation, and confinement depression are some factors of high death rates in assisted living and nursing home facilities.

14 Conflict of interest: Some facilities are owned by physicians who have a profit motive in filling empty rooms, turning their temporary patients into
permanent residents.

15. There are virtually no black residents in these expensive jails, despite the fact that many
residents are on Medicaid

16 Isolation, says the AARP, is a factor in premature deaths among residents in these facilities..

17 One doctor, a major investor in a new very expensive assisted living place, could not fill the empty rooms because of the cost. A wealthy older patient tried to change physicians. He obtained a medical power of attorney, had her institutionalized. When she worked to get an attorney, he took away
her phone, telling staff she had to learn to accept her situation, had all her mail sent to him, and limited her visitors.

18. Some health authorities question the prioritization of these facilities for resident vaccines, since these are often the most immune challenged or those with the most preexisting conditions, and therefore those most likely to have lethal side effects.

Profiteering and neglect
https://www.npr.org/people/2100677/ina-jaffe
Noise
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-03-me-9998-story.html
http://faculty.nps.edu/rdfricke/docs/Nursing_Home_Sleep_Paper.pdf
Poor Quality Food
https://theconversation.com/why-is-nursing-home-food-so-bad-some-spend-just-6-08-per-person-a-day-thats-lower-than-prison-120421
Abuse
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/statutes-combat-elder-abuse-nursing-homes/2014-05
Federal court strikes down hospital practice of refusing care
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-strikes-down-trump-administration-rule-allowing-refusals-health-care
Residents Not Allowed to Refuse Dangerous Antipsychotics
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/895308269/study-nursing-home-residents-not-protected-from-antipsychotic-drugs-under-trump
Nursing Home Theft
https://www.bayalarmmedical.com/medical-alert-blog/government-watchdogs-warn-about-theft-and-financial-abuse-in-senior-care-facilities/
Abuse of power of attorney\
https://ncea.acl.gov/NCEA/media/docs/archive/Durable-PofA-Abuse-FactSheet-Criminal-Justice-Professionals.pdf
Isolation
https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2020/covid-isolation-killing-nursing-home-residents.html
ACLU on aspects of nursing homes
https://www.aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/integration-and-autonomy-people-disabilities/secretary-price-dont-mess-people
Violations of Privacy
https://www.olympiainjurylawyer.com/violations-of-privacy-in-nursing-homes
Racial Disparities
https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article-abstract/75/9/1972/5610255?redirectedFrom=fulltext