nursing homes

What Happened to the Welcome Mat? Nursing Homes and Gay Elders

Posted on 08/9/2012 by | Caregiving | Comments

Caregiving | Home & FamilyLiving in a nursing home is not easy. When you are gay, it can be so much more complicated. Unless you’re at a progressive long-term care facility, staff (and fellow residents) may act less than warm and fuzzy, the Nursing Home Reform Act notwithstanding. Put simply, you or your visiting partner, if you’re lucky enough to have one, may not feel welcome. State laws that deny LGBT couples the same benefits as married heterosexuals reinforce their frustrating situation. Many older …

The Takeaway: Sex and the Nursing Home

Posted on 06/26/2012 by | Brooklyn, NY | Comments

News RoundupsI’ll admit I’ve not thought much about the sex lives of nursing home residents. But several Australian researchers have, with particular concern for patients with dementia. In a new paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics, they charge residential care facilities with denying residents “a basic human right” by discouraging or prohibiting consensual sexual activities. Consent, of course, is part of the issue when it comes to people with cognitive impairment such as dementia. But the start of dementia doesn’t mean the end of desire.

The Takeaway: Personal Care Homes – An Exposé in Georgia Lays Bare the Ugly Truth

Posted on 05/23/2012 by | Brooklyn, NY | Comments

News RoundupsMany of us worry about ending up in a nursing home, a fear that surely has to do with the shocking stories we’ve read over the years: neglect and abuse at the hands of caregivers, the inappropriate use of antipsychotics to drug residents into submission or stupor, the lack of adequate oversight by regulators at all levels. Now, from Georgia, comes an equally disturbing look at licensed personal care homes in that state. These facilities — which are little more …

The Takeaway: Nursing Homes Ill-Prepared For Natural Disasters

Posted on 04/16/2012 by | Brooklyn, NY | Comments

News RoundupsEmergency Plans Lack Specifics: Will your loved-one’s nursing home be ready should emergency arise? Don’t count on it: A recent government investigation found many nursing homes—even those in disaster-prone areas—are ill-prepared for natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. Seven years ago, Hurricane Katrina showed us how vulnerable nursing home patients can be during natural disasters (according to the Houston Chronicle, at least 139 nursing home residents died during the floods or their aftermath). Yet according to the Health and …

AARP to Legislators: Think Before You Cut

Posted on 04/4/2012 by | All the news that matters for Illinoisans over 50. | Comments

Your LifeHey blog readers – Jenn here from the communications team. This week I caught up with our staffer David Vinkler down in our Springfield office. He’s our expert on all things related to the state budget as well as home and community based services in Illinois.  He’s pretty much buried right now – analyzing where that elusive $2.8 billion (yeah that’s right, BILLION) in proposed cuts might come from in order for legislators to balance the  state budget by May 31st. …

Put the Residents of Illinois Nursing Homes First

Posted on 03/7/2012 by | All the news that matters for Illinoisans over 50. | Comments

Your LifeHey everybody – Jenn here from the Communications team keeping you in the loop on what’s up in Springfield this week. Let’s talk nursing home reform… In 2010 the Illinois General Assembly passed landmark legislation to improve the quality of care in Illinois nursing homes. (WOOHOO!) Among other elements, the new law addressed staffing ratios in nursing homes. Studies have shown that staffing ratios play a vital role in the quality of care nursing home residents receive, particularly when it …

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