Nursing Home Mistreatment Attorney | Dementia, Alzheimer's Likely to Be Issues and Boomers Get Older

Dementia, Alzheimer's Likely to Be Issues and Boomers Get Older

The baby boomer generation is getting older and that means that care for older people is going to become more of an issue in coming years. Already, states have begun taking action to try to improve the quality of care that people get in nursing homes. In Massachusetts, for example, legislation was recently signed that closed a loophole in the law that allowed people without any special training to advertise themselves as being able to provide care for those suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia.

Caring for Age-Related Disorders

There've been several issues over the years that have manifested related to the care of people with age-related disorders that affect cognitive abilities. One of the most significant has been the overmedication of patients as a means of keeping them under control. Patients are sometimes slipped tranquilizers or too much of a medication that they are actually prescribed by hospital staff or nursing home staff in an effort to keep them from acting up.

Over-medication a Danger

Obviously, this puts patients in danger. Without the special training required to deal with people who have Alzheimer's or dementia, nursing home staff can become frustrated, inefficient or completely ineffective in the level of care and the type of care that they provide. Because of this, elder advocacy groups and other groups have been working to try to increase the level of qualifications required of nursing home staff that deal with Alzheimer's and dementia patients and have been trying to control the problem of over-medication.

Staff of Drug Abusers

In Ohio, the governor recently announced a plan to try to combat the abuse of drugs in nursing homes in a different way. While some patients are given too much medication, there are others who have their medication stolen or sold by nursing home staff to feed addictions or simply to make money. Nursing homes are complex facilities with access to a lot of controlled substances. Because of that, tight oversight is required to make certain that they are adhering to all regulations that apply to them.

As the baby boomer generation gets older, these problems could become more severe. In some cases, nursing home neglect becomes severe, particularly in situations where staff is not adequately trained to deal with a particular issue or where medication is being stolen or sold instead of being given to patients. If you or a loved one in your family has been affected by either or some other form of nursing home mistreatment, be certain to contact a lawyer.