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Take a Moment to Acknowledge
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
June 15th is World
Elder Abuse Awareness Day. According to the Administration
for Community Living
(ACL), about five million – one in ten – older adults are abused, neglected, or
exploited every year. Elder abuse can take many forms and may even be
committed by those who are paid by publicly-funded programs, such as Medicare
and Medicaid, to ensure the health and safety of their patients. Sadly, elder
abuse is all too often a daily occurrence for some older adults in nursing
homes.
In a 2014
report, the
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services found that a third of all Medicare beneficiaries experienced
harm within just 15.5 days of entering a nursing home. The report determined
that 59 percent of the harm could have been prevented. Similarly, LTCCC’s recent analysis of data from the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrates that 250,000
nursing home residents
are still being given antipsychotic drugs. Too often these drugs are
administered as a form of chemical restraint. Unfortunately, at the same
time, CMS
data also
indicate that most health violations are identified as having caused “no
harm” to the resident, despite what physical or emotional pain the resident
might have experienced.
These reports provide just
a small window into what too many nursing home residents across the country
are experiencing every day, as inadequate staffing, regulatory rollbacks, and
lack of enforcement continue to drive down resident care and quality of life.
More can be done to combat
elder abuse, but CMS must first begin meaningfully enforcing the nursing home
Requirements of Participation, which provide the standards of care that
nursing homes must follow. Greater enforcement of the nursing home standards
of care, as Members
of Congress
and State
Attorneys General
have shown support for this year, would be a worthy first step to decreasing
nursing home abuse.
Every nursing home resident
has the right to be free from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and the
misappropriation of their property. For more information about your rights as
a nursing home resident or the rights of a loved one, please see our
resources below.
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Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. • www.MedicareAdvocacy.org
PO Box 350, Willimantic, CT 06226 • 1025 CT Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036
PO Box 350, Willimantic, CT 06226 • 1025 CT Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036
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