It is with horror that we read two terrible news in the same day. First, the San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers, Justin Berton, and Henry K. Lee reported that a worker, after two weeks of being hired, at a convalescent home in San Francisco, killed a resident at the center this morning, carjacked a vehicle and fled across the city, crashing into a moving car in Potrero Hill, where he was chased down by witnesses as he fled on foot, police and a center official said. Read the rest of the article.
While still trying to recover for this one, we read another news where a worker in Berkeley kidnapped a resident for a year, cashing the resident’s social security and pension checks, stole money from 5 other residents living at that facility, and convinced one of these residents’ family members to pay an extra $600 per month, which she pocketed…
Read moreTalking to Dr. Tessa ten Tusscher, friend, business partner, and expert in the geriatric field, she said: “…These stories point to the horrific state of our nursing home care. While it is much more dramatic than most cases of elder abuse, the underlying issue is that abuse in nursing homes is rampant and that the situation will only get worse in the current economic crisis and with the huge growth of seniors who are frail. In SF, the Ombudsman program (which oversees care for people in nursing homes) got cut back so drastically in the recent sets of budget reduction that it only has about 1.5 FTE staff and some volunteers to monitor the care for all the institutionalized people in SF.
Dr. ten Tusscher, as a geriatric psychologist who had been working in the City for many years, running programs as the Vice President for Clinical Programs for the Institute on Aging and now as the CEO for Living Well Assisted Living at Home, Inc she has heard of so many cases of nursing home abuse that it is horrifying. She continues “…One of the many sad parts of this story is that families often make the decision to institutionalize their loved one based on the belief that the will be safer than at home – but the standards of care are so appalling and the oversight so weak that they are actually less monitored than if they were to stay at home with home-base services…. although, these are not all perfect either by any means, people could be safer. One thing one may not know is that Adult Protective Services does not investigate nursing home abuse (only abuse in the community) and – while they got hit by the budget cuts badly too – the at least have about 40 social workers in the field.
This will only get worse when the Adult Day Health programs are cut and now that DHSS has been drastically cut – which will mean more people are institutionalized (often in substandard places) and there will be minimal oversight for the most frail members of our communities. If you have ever visited many of these places – you could only be appalled…”
Scary picture… we need to do something and become part of the critical mass that will change the way people age in America!
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It is with horror that we read two terrible news in the same day. First, the San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers, Justin Berton, and Henry K. Lee reported that a worker, after two weeks of being hired, at a convalescent home in San Francisco, killed a resident at the center this morning, carjacked a vehicle and fled across the city, crashing into a moving car in Potrero Hill, where he was chased down by witnesses as he fled on foot, police and a center official said. Read the rest of the article.
Always interview carer and check whole details including background and social security number before hiring a carer, because your elder’s remains alone at home under the supervision of carers and if carers are misbehaving or trying to rob your elder’s will be helpless.
Dear friend:
The relationship is in the fact that people could be safer at home and not at institutions, given all safety monitoring and comprehensive services are provided.
I read your blog frequently and I just thought I’d say keep up the good work!
wonderful share, great article, very useful for me…thanks
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.