Abuse and Neglect in Long-Term Care
Abuse and neglect in long term care facilities
Arminda Carroll
RES/110
9/23/2010
University of Phoenix
A long term care facility is housing for the elderly and disabled that are not capable of residing in a home of their own. “There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States with a total of 1.6 million residents, and numbers are expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050”(Dehart, Webb & Cornman, 2009 p.361). Subsequently, there is abuse that takes place in these facilities. Even though some people are not aware of abuse, abuse is a wide spread phenomenon consisting of verbal, physical, and resident to resident abuse that is taking place in long term care facilities. Abuse prevention is transpiring to overcome these various abuses that occur (Dehart et al, 2009).
The first type of abuse stated is verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is generally defined as profane, insulting, and obscene language or sexual advances (Voyer et al, 2005). There are some employees that work in these facilities and assume that it is ok to use profane language and raise their voice at residents. Abuse being complicated to provide a definitive definition, some individuals just claim they do not know profane language is considered verbal abuse (McGarry & Simpson, 2009). Regardless of what the resident does to the employee, the employee should always handle it in a professional manner. Individuals perceive that if the outburst is unintentional and they did not intend for it to happen then it is not considered abuse (McGarry & Simpson, 2009). When people work and live in the same place and depend one on another daily for their everyday living there is a potential for abuse to arise (Daly & Jogerst, 2006). In consideration of verbal abuse the receipt of verbal abuse can suffer emotional and mental distress that can lead to clinical depression (Voyer et al, 2005). Before having an intentional or unintentional angry outburst one should always consider
Arminda Carroll
RES/110
9/23/2010
University of Phoenix
A long term care facility is housing for the elderly and disabled that are not capable of residing in a home of their own. “There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States with a total of 1.6 million residents, and numbers are expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050”(Dehart, Webb & Cornman, 2009 p.361). Subsequently, there is abuse that takes place in these facilities. Even though some people are not aware of abuse, abuse is a wide spread phenomenon consisting of verbal, physical, and resident to resident abuse that is taking place in long term care facilities. Abuse prevention is transpiring to overcome these various abuses that occur (Dehart et al, 2009).
The first type of abuse stated is verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is generally defined as profane, insulting, and obscene language or sexual advances (Voyer et al, 2005). There are some employees that work in these facilities and assume that it is ok to use profane language and raise their voice at residents. Abuse being complicated to provide a definitive definition, some individuals just claim they do not know profane language is considered verbal abuse (McGarry & Simpson, 2009). Regardless of what the resident does to the employee, the employee should always handle it in a professional manner. Individuals perceive that if the outburst is unintentional and they did not intend for it to happen then it is not considered abuse (McGarry & Simpson, 2009). When people work and live in the same place and depend one on another daily for their everyday living there is a potential for abuse to arise (Daly & Jogerst, 2006). In consideration of verbal abuse the receipt of verbal abuse can suffer emotional and mental distress that can lead to clinical depression (Voyer et al, 2005). Before having an intentional or unintentional angry outburst one should always consider
References: Daly, J. M., & Jogerst, G. J. (2006). Nursing home Statutes: Mistreatment Definitions. Elder Abuse and Neglect, 18(1), 19-24. Daly, J., & Coffey, A. (2010). Staff perceptions of elder abuse. Nursing Older People, 22(4), 33-37. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. DeHart, D., Webb, J., & Cornman, C. (2009). Prevention of Elder Mistreatment in Nursing Homes: Competencies for Direct-Care Staff. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 21(4), 360-378. Malmedal, W., Ingebrigtsen, O., & Saveman, B. (2009). Inadequate care in Norwegian nursing homes – as reported by nursing staff. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 23(2), 231-242 McGarry, J., & Simpson, C. (2009). Identifying, reporting and preventing elder abuse in the practice setting. Nursing Older People, 21(1), 33-38. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. Rosen, T., Lachs, M. S., Bharucha, A. J., Stevens, S. M., Teresi, J. A., Nebres, F., & Phillemer, K. (2008). Resident-to-Resident Aggression in Long-Term Care Facilities. Clinical Investigations, 1(1), 1-11. Voyer, P., Verreault, R., Azizah, G. M., Desrosiers, J., Champoux, N., & Be 'dard, A. (November 10, 2005). BMC Geriatrics. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2318/5/13