How Do We Resolve the Persistent Nature of Nursing Home Abuse?
Nursing home abuse is a terrible occurrence in the United States. There’s also a lack of unified data on the abuse that happens within nursing homes, especially sexual abuse. And while people can look up nursing home reviews and see how the facility rates, this doesn’t always stop bad people from slipping through the cracks. It only takes one negligent or abusive person to harm an elder.
Stopping abuse from happening is necessary, but is a task that’s considered difficult due to the persistent nature of both neglect and abuse. Cases of abuse are considered “persistent” because events continue to happen despite changes made in the last couple of years to encourage honest facility reviews and staffing protocols that hold homes accountable. Given how defenseless nursing home residents often tend to be, protections need to be in place to keep residents safe from horrific abusive crimes. This poses a question that’s difficult to answer: What types of protections are we lacking nationwide, and how can we stop abuse cases from being so persistent?