Elderly Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes free essay sample

Elderly Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes Debra K. Showers Kaplan University Elderly Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes Are nursing homes abusing and neglecting the elderly? The elderly are abused and neglected in society today by caregivers in nursing homes. Elder abuse or neglect is a single or repeated action occurring within any relationship where there is an overlook of trust which causes injury or distress to an older person. The elderly are our foundation and our youth are the building blocks to our nation. Some elderly have no medical problems, some are autistic, and many are handicapped. Nursing homes are a place where the elderly can live when their families do not have the resources or the extra time to care for them appropriately. My research is about deficiencies showing abuse and neglect in nursing homes and how facilities can improve the quality of the care they provide to the resident. I will show evidence of abuse and neglect through other studies and what I can do to help prevent it so they will be a place where the elderly wouldn’t mind moving into because of diminutive resources. My research involves looking at different articles on what researchers did as far as going into nursing homes and finding out what was needed to make them a better place for the elderly to live. When we think of nursing homes our first impression is smelly, ugly and old people. The truth is they are only smelly because that is the level of care they get and they are ugly because that is how we as the younger generation perceive them. Just because a person is ugly and old does not make them a nightmare or a misfit. Sometimes the ugliness is because of the beauty they held when they were younger and worked hard to have nice things and worked hard for their families. Just because they have wrinkles and their faces have changed with the winds of time does not make them ugly. It is what is in the heart that allows them to be seen in a different perspective. When they are forced to go into nursing homes and the level of care there is not up to what they expect sometimes that causes them to be bitter, changing their whole outlook on life which causes their attitude to change and their facial expressions and the way they motive themselves. You need to make more substantial arguments why this topic needs to be researched. I know from experience from what I saw firsthand while working in a nursing home that the resident feels degraded and fears for their lives with that caregiver. They do not want anything to do with that caregiver because they hurt them and when the resident upsets the caregiver they are sometimes lashed out at by having to wait to go the restroom and then accidents happen. The resident’s dignity is affected by this and the caregiver just looks at as a way to get back at the resident not thinking about how it hurts their self-respect and dignity. Personal experience is not always reliable. You need to cite your sources. You need to discuss how reliable this conclusion is. You need to discuss why your proposed research is needed. In one article they talked about reducing the funding because of the deficiencies caused by the employees and therefore making the nursing home an unsafe atmosphere for the resident. Employing someone who is a threat to the resident does not make for a healthy or happy resident. I am going to bring to the table some research that was done to show what deficiencies were made known in some nursing home surveys and how they are expected to resolve them. LITERARY REVIEW North and Fiske This article describes how growing old is â€Å"an inconvenienced youth†. They discuss how it also relates to racism and stereotyping on the elderly. It discusses how research proposes to treat the elderly in the future. They also stated â€Å"we review relevant empirical work that introduces reasons for both optimism and pessimism concerning intergenerational relations within an aging society†. The method they use is a socio-structural analysis through which . What this analysis is that they reviewed literature on ageism and discussed the intricate concerns on the elderly. They looked at the theoretical aspects that explain the concerns of the elderly. It is thought if we discuss and have an understanding of intergenerational perceptions through empirical and optimistic perceptions then we have a better chance of understanding the concepts of the ageism. Is this a method you might try? Why or why not? They might have different results, in being dependent on caregivers for support, and society curbs various freedoms and when we are younger we have prestige, income employment and management positions. The results of the research is the study found that the elderly are living longer and by the year 2050 there will be more elders than youth. As previously indicated, one possible explanation for why older people may have come to be less valued than in the past is because they do not offer as much value in modernized societies because they have not kept up the changes because they are used to their old ways. The research that North and Fiske accomplished showed enough evidence that our elderly are† an inconvenienced youth† at this time but not forever. What kind of outcomes supported this conclusion? The conclusion made by the authors is that society’s treatment of ageism should become â€Å"prime research topic across multiple social sciences†. They also reported there is a need for â€Å"more work and broader forward thinking structural approaches and that it is evident, given changing age dynamics†. In other words the elderly are living longer than the youth of today. I have to agree with them that the elderly are learning to take better care and that will live longer than a Hundred (100) years old. Phelan, A This article discusses how the elderly are abused and how they are disregarded as a citizen just because they grow old and have different attitudes about life than the younger generations. It discusses how the elderly are said to be difficult due to how they are used to doing things in their life time. It also compares Elder abuse to child abuse. Child abuse is treated as more severe than the elderly abuse because children do not have the ability to know right from wrong. The method that was used to determine how severe the elderly abuse is as opposed to child abuse was a study in an attempt to compute the problem of â€Å"elder abuse in society, studies have indicated 2–6% (O’Malley, Segars and Perez 1979; Pillemer and Finkelhor 1988; O’Keeffe et al. 2007) prevalence in the community environment while a major study in the USA estimates an incidence of 1. 6% (National Center on Elder Abuse 1998† (Phelan, 2008). The results of the questionnaire were 5. % of elder abuse goes unreported because they are afraid to report their children or spouse to social services or the police. An absence of clearness is present as to what should and should not be included in the classification of elder abuse. We have environmental and cultural issues that further complicate factors that include the intent and motivation of the offender. The offender will sometimes make the elderly believe that they are to blame for the abuse. Phelan goes on t o state â€Å"that elder abuse can be understood as a distinct phenomenon†. Her research is relating and applying research findings to guide the caregivers to prevention, documentation and follow-on care (Biggs, Phillipson and Kingston 1995). She goes on to state that the definition of elderly abuse is always â€Å"changing according to the professional and societal discourses at different time periods†. Her way of thinking was that if the proper training and documentation and follow up is are given then that would reduce the elderly abuse worldwide in nursing facilities and private homes. The results of her study are that a structure of universal rights analyzes the attitudes, practices and or actions and will reduce the ageism of categorizing, disreputable and unfair care given to the elderly by professionals and family by giving way to easing, continuing and protecting self-sufficiency, integrity, self-esteem and admiration. Your review of literature needs to focus on the issues, hypothesis and methods that you plan to address in your own study. Wolf, Daichman, and Bennett This article discusses elderly abuse word wide and how it is looked at in different cultures. This group researched and found that out of 15, 000 nursing home they all had ten deficiencies in common of which they were percentages in different areas of these 15, 000 nursing homes were in food preparation, comprehensive assessments, comprehensive care plans, accidents, pressures sores, the quality of care, physical restraints ( illegal), housekeeping lack of dignity and accident prevention. How sad is that? That is a lot of deficiency when you look at 15, 000 nursing homes in the United States. These researchers have a list of elder abuse indicators which show the signs of the elder abuse which can be anything from a change in their eating habits to their medical care or finances. They give a table of these indicators and also some indicators of the caregiver being stressed to them not having the elderly to be interviewed by the social service person by themselves for fear of them telling about the abuse or neglect. They go on to state â€Å"Prevention starts with Awareness†. They discuss ways to get this done is by training and education in the professional field and at home. In conclusion this group of researches state the problem of the elderly abuse cannot be resolved if their needs are not properly met. They go on to state that ageism is a normal part of life and should be viewed in every nation and the elderly should not be oppressed and should be given the right to their â€Å"dignity and given opportunities to participate in educational, cultural, spiritual and economic activities†. Your review of literature extended too long without preparing for a discussion of your hypothesis or suggested methods. You need to have section headings. It is hard to follow what you are covering without section headings. My proposed research is to go into nursing homes undercover after talking to the Owner to see if he is getting the reputation of having a facility that the elderly want to live in. I want to make sure that there are policies in place to hold caregivers responsible for their actions and the Administrator as well. The Administrator represents the owner and in the process the caregivers who work for the Administrator represent them. So if the Administrator is a non-caring person the caregivers may fall into this area of gray as well. The thing that needs to be done is my research needs to start with the owner and the Administrator and then interview the employees once the investigation undercover as a caregiver is accomplished to see what goes on and how the other caregivers perform. What is your hypothesis? You need to discuss how it relates to your research question and how it suggests the methods you plan to use. Is this owner after the money or are they ready to meet the needs of the elderly? I would like to take a sample of the different facilities such as an area of elderly with little or no assistance needed and then the Autistic areas of the healthcare and then the handicapped or wheelchair bound resident to see what the different types of abuse and neglect is lurking in the shadows of each facility. I know from working in the nursing homes that caregivers can be a challenge just as much as the elderly. I want to sort out the problems and give them a way to set up training and education to benefit the resident and the employee as well. Are nursing homes abusing and neglecting the Elderly? Let’s find out if Nursing homes are abusing and neglecting the Elderly. |Course Content |Points | |Assignment opens with background material ensuring that the reader understands the topic of the research.