Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes: There Is No Safe Place

Description

“Abuse, although often not detected or reported, existed in every facility we surveyed. It is a serious problem.” Old, weak, and often cognitively impaired, nursing home patients can be easy targets for physical, psychological, material, and financial mistreatment at the hands of those entrusted with their care, safety, and well-being. Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes: There... Read more

“Abuse, although often not detected or reported, existed in every facility we surveyed. It is a serious problem.”

Old, weak, and often cognitively impaired, nursing home patients can be easy targets for physical, psychological, material, and financial mistreatment at the hands of those entrusted with their care, safety, and well-being. Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes: There Is No Safe Place examines the dark side of nursing homes, where not every employee has the commitment of Mother Theresa. This groundbreaking book applies criminological theory to help develop practical methods of controlling abuse and presents the results of the first and only nationwide study on the theft of patients’ belongings, a form of abuse too often ignored by the nursing home industry.

Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes surveys employees, administrators, and family members of patients in 47 nursing homes throughout the United States. Their responses provide invaluable insights on a wide range of topics, including the social and psychological factors that cause different types of abuse, characteristics of nursing home patients and employees, the bureaucracy of nursing homes, victimization rates, workforce issues of nursing home aides, and federal regulations for nursing homes. The information gained from the surveys forms the basis for detailed recommendations for creating a safer environment and reducing all forms of abuse, including theft-prevention training programs, background checks and improved screening of potential employees, education and advocacy for current staff, and the reform of federal regulations.

Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes examines:

types of physical abuse (restraints, sexual abuse, neglect)
the who, what, and why of nursing home theft
types of financial abuse (trust accounts, bank accounts, improper charges for services and drugs, identity theft)
types of psychological abuse (abandonment, segregation, childlike treatment, verbal abuse)
effects of psychological abuse (depression, learned helplessness, psychiatric disorders)
reasons for abuse by employees (staff turnover, job burnout, job dissatisfaction, caregiver stress)

One of the few books to deal with abuse of the elderly outside a domestic setting, Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes: There Is No Safe Place interprets and analyzes abuse to provide new ways of thinking about this growing problem and new methods of preventing it from growing any more widespread. Read less

Preface
PART I: NURSING HOMES AND THEORIES OF ABUSE
Chapter 1. The Nature of Nursing Homes
Myths and Facts About Nursing Homes
How Nursing Homes Got Started
Nursing Homes As Bureaucracies
Nursing Homes As Total Institutions
Barriers to Nursing Home Abuse Research
Chapter 2. Nursing Aides: The Backbone of Care in Nursing Homes
Workforce Issues and Problems of Nursing Home Aides
Narratives of Nursing Home Aides
Chapter 3. Understanding Abuse
Why Nursing Homes May Be Good for Abusers
Nursing Homes and the Motivated Offender
Patients and Their Possessions As Suitable Targets
Guardianship in Nursing Homes
Countervailing Forces
Summary
PART II: NURSING HOME THEFT
Chapter 4. Employees and Theft
Results from the Survey of Employees
Conclusions About Employees
Chapter 5. The Victims and Their Families
Family Members’ Reports of Theft
What Is Stolen?
Conclusion
Chapter 6. Preventing and Reducing Theft
Theft Precautions for Patients
Theft Precautions for Nursing Homes
Reporting of Theft
Theft Prevention Training Programs
PART III: PHYSICAL AND MENTAL MALTREATMENT
Chapter 7. Physical Abuse and Neglect
Abandonment, Segregation, and Neglect
Government Reform Committee
Types of Physical Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Neglect
Chapter 8. Psychological Abuse and Neglect
Types of Psychological Abuse
Some Effects of Psychological Abuse
Neglect
Chapter 9. Reducing the Risk of Physical and Psychological Abuse
Screening Practices
Staff Education and Training
Advocacy
PART IV: FRAUD, REFORM, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Chapter 10. Exploitation of Nursing Home Patients: Their Finances and Rights
Financial Abuse
Reform of Nursing Home Regulations
Chapter 11. Summary and Conclusions
Appendix. Methodology
Data Collection
Employee Questionnaires
Measuring Theft
Response Rates from the Survey of Employees
Victimization Survey
Family Members’ Questionnaire
Glossary
References
Index

Author(s)

Biography

Diana K. Harris, Michael L. Benson

Maltreatment of Patients in Nursing Homes There Is No Safe Place

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

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