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 Respecting Our Elders
by Tom Campbell
March 11, 2010
Time was when people got old they moved in with their children, if they weren’t already living in the same house. But that doesn’t happen so much anymore. Older adults do not want to be a financial or care burden to their families, so a new genre of options has replaced the “Old Folks Home” many counties operated for years. We need to pay attention to the care being offered our elders.
Taking care of seniors has become a big business. No doubt you have seen the ads for the retirement and adult home complexes complete with fancy dining rooms, handsome meeting rooms, recreation complexes, even indoor swimming pools. Some command six-figure up front investments and monthly service fees costing thousands. Most folks cannot afford such opulence. They remain in their homes as long as possible, transitioning to assisted living when unable to live alone, finally moving to retirement or nursing homes as more care is needed. Elder care isn’t cheap, as you quickly learn upon reviewing monthly charges from any facility, affordable to many only because of Medicare and Medicaid assistance.
When someone places a loved one in an elder care facility they trust that person will be treated with respect, will receive the necessary medical and hygiene attention and that gentle care will be provided. There is mounting evidence that the profit motive is trumping care considerations in far too many nursing and retirement homes. Reports of neglected, overmedicated or shoddy treatment by understaffed, undertrained or uncaring personnel are becoming too common.
“Medicaid Millionaires” is the moniker now applied to nursing and retirement home operators who have learned how to game the Medicare and Medicaid system. WRAL TV recently reported many of these operators have been major political contributors, often contributing to both opponents in gubernatorial races in an effort to gain access to high ranking politicians and influence over regulations that affect their businesses, another example of pay to play in this state.
Caring for the elderly isn’t easy. They are often grumpy, demanding, uncommunicative, physically incapable of helping themselves and require frequent attention. We are blessed to have many in the field who genuinely care and work hard to ensure a high level of treatment to seniors. We applaud their dedication and high standards. But even though our state developed a rating system to differentiate the good from the bad facilities, it hasn’t been as effective as needed.
State regulators and advocates for seniors know which operators are good and which ones are not. Too often the same operators are the most frequent offenders, leaving family members with few choices, at the mercy of a system they count on to protect their loved ones. North Carolina citizens need confidence in the regulation, inspection and enforcement of elder care facilities and we need to weed out incapable, uncooperative or uncaring operators.
As baby boomers begin to flood the ranks of people over 65, the demand for elder care will increase exponentially. Momma always told us to respect our elders. That especially applies to how we treat them in their latter years. |
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