Aged Care: Forgotten Sufferers of Dementia (UK)

Charity's concern over care

27 January 2011

By Joanna Wardill

MORE than half of people with dementia in the region are not receiving enough care at home, according to a new report.

A survey by the Alzheimer's Society found 51 per cent of carers in the Yorkshire and Humber region spoke of dementia patients being left bedridden, wearing unchanged incontinence pads and malnourished.

The report, which looked at support of people  with dementia in their own homes, also found 55 per cent of carers felt they were being put at risk of stress and depression because of a lack of support.

The charity said the "substandard care" will result in 50,000 people nationally being forced into care homes early, costing £70m for each avoidable month people with dementia spend in care.

Charity bosses are calling on commissioners to invest in dementia services and training to keep more people out of hospitals and care homes and to save the NHS and councils from bankruptcy.

Nicki Dyson, Alzheimer's Society Yorkshire and Humber area manager, said: "It is an absolute travesty that so many people with dementia are being forced to struggle without the care and support they need. The consequences of this represnt an unacceptable human and financial cost.

"Half a million people with dementia live in the community and many will need help with everyday tasks such as eating meals, washing or going to the toilet. 

"This help not only maintains dignity but prevents serious health issues. While staying at home is not right for everyone we know many people want to remain in the familiar surroundings they are used to with family or loved ones. Only with the right support will this be possible."




SOURCE:  The Halifax Courier, UK


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Family Sues Senior Home after Catching Alleged Elder Abuse on Video (USA)

Family Sues Senior Home after Catching Alleged Elder Abuse on Video

By ARUNA LEE, NEW AMERICA MEDIA

January 25, 2011

Relatives of an elderly Korean-American woman who died in June have filed suit with the senior home where she lived, after video footage taken in her room led to a state-ordered closing of the facility, reports the Korea Daily in Oakland. The lawsuit claims that abuse by caregivers there led to the woman’s untimely death.

According to the Korea Daily article, 73-year-old Kyong-hui Duncan died while her family was in the process of looking for a new senior home for her. Suspicious of the care she was receiving at the Fair Oaks Residential Elderly Care center, located outside Sacramento, relatives had installed a security camera in Duncan’s room.

Though the family claims the camera was often shut off by care providers during routine visits, images taken by the camera during one such visit show caregivers violently shaking Duncan as they attempt to place her in a wheelchair. 


Abridged
SOURCE:     The BayCitizen
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Great Falls Woman Charged With Elder Abuse (USA)

Jan 25, 201

A woman accused of stealing money from an elderly Great Falls man is facing a felony charge of elder abuse.

Jerome Wilson, an 82-year old widower, lives at the Park Place Health Care Center in Great Falls; he suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia.

Police records say defendant Tamara Belcourt was appointed as Wilson's power of attorney, but Wilson did not have the ability to consent to the appointment.

When an Adult Protective Services case worker interviewed Wilson in March he was unaware of his financial situation, but was delinquent in payments at the retirement home.

Abridged
SOURCE:    KRTV
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Chinese Seniors in U.S. Fall Victim to Elder Abuse (Part I)

Chinese Seniors in U.S. Fall Victim to Elder Abuse (Part I)

BY Rong Xiaoqing

Ie Contributor

New America Media

www.newamericamedia.org

By IE Guest Contributor
 Features, News, Volume 38 No. 02

Although she immigrated to the United States from Canton, China 13 years ago, Cai E. Yu still remembers the meaning of Sept. 9 on the lunar calendar.

The day is the traditional Double Nines Festival, which is also legally designated as the Seniors’ Festival in mainland China and Taiwan because the digit “9” is associated with longevity in the Chinese culture. Young people are supposed to show particular reverence to elders on this day.

But Yu, 70, is not expecting any kind gestures from her only daughter, who is now 50. Since Yu arrived in the United States on a green card sponsored by her daughter, the daughter has been living with Yu in her rent-controlled apartment in New York’s Chinatown.

However, their relationship started to go sour two years ago, when Yu tried to stop her daughter from idling around day after day with a semi live-in boyfriend, whom Yu thought was a bad influence.

“Why Don’t You Die?”

Since then, her daughter has said things like: “Why don’t you die now?” And, “Why don’t you just go to live in the hospital?” She has also withdrawn money from her mother’s bank account without authorization. She even threw the mother’s belongings out of the apartment in an attempt to force her out.

Yu is among the up to 5 million elders victimized by financial abuse in the United States, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), a program of the U.S. Administration on Aging. As many as 2 million seniors are mistreated by family members or others they depend on for protection. But in the Chinese and other Asian communities, family shame and secrecy make exact numbers difficult to measure.

“Sometimes, when they [her daughter and boyfriend] are at home, I don’t dare to go to bed. I am afraid they’d kill me when I fall asleep,” said Yu, who got a court restraining order against her daughter with the help of a community-based organization.

Reflecting the rapid national growth of Asian elders, the population of seniors 60 or older is 93,000 and will more than double in 10 years. This will be the fastest growth among all racial groups in New York, according to the City Council. And the population growth is likely to be accompanied by a rise in abuse cases such as Yu’s.

Familial piety is so highly valued in the Asian culture, contributing to the image of Asian Americans as a model minority, that many people, including Asian Americans, don’t realize that senior abuse exists in this community.

“The more a culture emphasizes a certain value, the harder for people from this cultural background to openly talk about behaviors that go against the value,” said Peter Cheng, executive director of Indochina Sino-American Community Center, which operates the only senior protection program in the Chinese community in New York.

Cheng sensed something wrong two years ago when one of the elderly members of his organization asked social workers there to help him fill out an application for government housing.

He remembered that the man had purchased a co-op apartment several years earlier, and the center had even hosted a celebratory party for him. “I was very curious why he needed government housing, so I asked.”

Cheng recalled, “He told me he spent his whole life savings to buy the co-op apartment in his son’s name, [that he] only wanted to get the son a good life. But now his son doesn’t want to live with him, and he was evicted.”

Abridged
SOURCE:      The IE Examiner
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Feds Announce More Funding for Women's Shelter (ON. CANADA)

CTV Southwestern Ontario

Jan. 18, 2011

The federal government has announced $1.7 million for the new Anselma House facility, a Kitchener women's shelter set to open in March.

Kitchener Centre MP Stephen Woodworth was on hand to make the announcement on behalf of the Ministry of Human Resources and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

He says "The government is also very interested in protecting the vulnerable and our society when they need it most, and this fits that to a T."

The construction has been underway for a year and a half and is nearly complete, but funding had been falling short ahead of the announcement.

The cost of the new 45 bed facility at Ottawa Street and Heritage Drive is approximately $8.5 million. An additional $400,000 is still needed for the project.

The Women's Crisis Service of Waterloo Region had been concerned they would be unable to open the facility, according to executive director Mary Zilney.

Anselma House, which was established in 1978, and Haven House in Cambridge have both been over capacity in recent months, amplifying the need for the new facility.

At Anselma they've been squeezing more than 30 clients into a 20 bed home.

More beds are needed, not just for women and children, but for another growing group suffering from domestic violence, seniors.

Waterloo Regional Police Det. Const. Mike Payne says "We see a growing need with the aging population, with elderly victims of not only domestic violence, spousal, intimate violence, but also violence in regards to the family, familial elder abuse. These elderly people are victims, they need some supports."

Meanwhile there is still the hope that one day the shelter's services won't be needed.

Zilney says "We have to work hard as a community to eradicate violence so that we don't see the women coming forward."

SOURCE:   CTV.CA










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NHS Reform Must Start With the Rudest Nurse and the Shabbiest Hospital Ward (UK)

By Judith Potts 

January 18th, 2011

Writing so much about cancer inevitably leads to harrowing examples of shabby neglect by people who have a duty of care to their patients. This particularly shocking account was recently sent to me:

To the great distress of the family involved, the hospital to which their desperately ill relative was taken – nearing the end of his life – placed him not on a quiet ward nor in a peaceful room, but on an “acute” ward. It appears that the scene on this ward was one of bedlam – a constant barrage of loud voices and machinery, a urine bottle pouring its contents onto the floor, with only the canteen offered to the family as a place to which they might withdraw to collect their thoughts. A hospice bed had become available but, incredibly, the hospital patient discharge planning process does not function at weekends – so going home was not an option either.

Please could someone explain to me why nurses working on an NHS “acute” ward (which, presumably, houses seriously ill patients who might soon come to the end of their lives) do not appear to have the same levels of care for those patients and their families, as do hospice nurses?

So, I ask – is a hospice nurse a different sort of person?  I suggested in my last blog post that some NHS nurses clearly think they are offering a form of charity, for which we should be grateful – hence their “attitude”.  However, on second thoughts, that cannot be right because 63 per cent of hospice funding comes from charitable donations – yet their nurses exhibit only professional care and compassion. Why the difference?

David Cameron insists he wants to “champion excellence”. Perhaps he could start by ensuring our NHS nurses are equipped with an old-fashioned “bedside manner”. I have encountered nurses and carers in residential and nursing homes – who are paid considerably less than NHS nurses and, often, work under just as difficult conditions – whose caring attitude to their patients and residents would put some NHS nurses to shame.

What happened to the Matrons of old? Where is the management in these hospitals? Does no one ever check on the wards? Is no one ever held to account for the chaos? When my Mother trained in London in the 1930s and 1940s, nurses were extremely badly paid but were dedicated to their profession and proud to wear their uniform. Their standard of compassion and care – not to mention cleanliness of themselves and the ward – was instinctively high. Where has that gone?

Hospice nurses not only care for patients in-house but also visit those people who prefer to remain in their own homes, plus working with nursing home staff to help nurse their residents. The care is holistic – not just clinical – encompassing social care, physiotherapy, complementary therapies and, very importantly, support for the family. On a positive note, Help the Hospices, which raises so much of the essential funds for the UK hospices, is seeing increased collaboration between hospitals and hospice staff. Might it not help if hospital nurses were all trained in the hospice “end of life care”? Surely the “social, emotional and psychological elements”, which Help the Hospices believes “are central to hospice and palliative care” should be already in the DNA of our entire health service?

Good luck to Mr Cameron in shaking up the NHS. Putting back a caring culture on our wards would cost nothing but would transform people’s experience of hospitals. I am not holding my breath. After all, what happened to John Major’s “Patients’ Charter”. Nothing!

SOURCE:     The Telegraph.UK
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Suspect In Rape Of 80-Year-Old Relative Charged (CA. USA)

Suspect In Rape Of 80-Year-Old Relative Charged

January 18, 2011

Prosecutors filed charges Tuesday against a man accused of raping an 80-year-old woman at knifepoint inside her home in Richmond last week, Deputy District Attorney Nancy Georgiou said.

Anthony Square, 44, was charged with forcible rape with the use of a knife, forcible lewd and lascivious acts with the use of a knife, elder abuse, and threatening a witness or victim to prevent the filing of a police report, Georgiou said.

The alleged attack happened last Thursday in the victim's home in the 2400 block of Nevin Avenue, police said.

Abridged
SOURCE:      KTVU
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Elder Abuse - A Growing But Hidden Asian Communities (USA)

Awareness of Elder Abuse, a Growing but Hidden in Asian Communities: Interview with Peter Cheng

JANUARY 18, 2011

Elder Abuse occurs when someone 60 or older is mistreated. Elder abuse includes emotional, mental and physical abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, and abandonment. Abusers of older people are both women and men and may be family members, friends, or ‘trusted people.’ Family elder abuse affects as many as 2 million seniors in the United States, as well as up to 5 million seniors who are subjected to financial exploitation, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), a program of the U.S. Administration on Aging.

To investigate the elder abuse situation of Asian communities in New York City, GAA Research Associate Nuri Han met with Peter Cheng, Executive Director of Indochina Sino-American Community Center (ISACC). Located in Manhattan’s Chinatown, ISACC has assisted Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese, Philipino, and Malaysian immigrants and refugees integrate into mainstream society by providing programs, services and activities since 1990.

Only one elder abuse protection program

Two years ago, Cheng recognized elder abuse when one elder client asked the organization’s staff to help him fill out an application for government housing. Cheng knew that the elderly man had purchased a co-op apartment. Cheng, curious why he needed government housing, asked. The elderly man said that he worked hard and purchased the co-op apartment in his son’s name. However, his son did not want to live with him so he was evicted.

Cheng surveyed other clients and found that this man’s situation was not unique. In response, Cheng launched the Chinese Americans Restoring Elders (CARE) Project, the first and only elder abuse prevention program in New York City’s Chinese community. The CARE Project raises awareness of elder abuse and assists older people in need by providing linguistically and culturally appropriate education materials. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding, only one case worker can be solely devoted to this project.

Growing but hidden

Reflecting the rapid growth of Chinese elders in New York City, the population of Chinese seniors 60 or older is 93,000 persons and will more than double in 10 years. This will be the fastest growth rate among all ethnic groups in New York, according to the City Council. However, nobody knows how many elder abuse cases there are in New York’s Asian community. 


Abridged
SOURCE:   Global Aging






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Ageism: The Path to Elder Abuse

January 17, 2011

By Jack Halpern

The number of Americans 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population, geropsychologists say. Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism. Fueling the problem is the media's portrayal of older adults.

At a Senate hearing last fall, experts testified before the Special Committee on Aging about the effects of age stereotypes. Doris Roberts, the Emmy-award winning actress in her seventies from the television show "Everybody Loves Raymond," also testified at the hearing.

"My peers and I are portrayed as dependent, helpless, unproductive and demanding rather than deserving," Roberts testified. "In reality, the majority of seniors are self-sufficient, middle-class consumers with more assets than most young people, and the time and talent to offer society."

The world of aging portrayed in the mass media has not traditionally been an enjoyable or positive one.

Old people today are generally not appreciated as experienced "elders" or possessors of special wisdom; they are simply seen as sometimes remaining competent enough to be included in the unitary role category of "active citizen." Old people are respected to the extent that they can behave like young people, that is, to the extent that they remain capable of working, enjoying sex, exercising and taking care of themselves.

An advertisement for a calcium dietary supplement, recently seen in numerous national magazines, depicts a woman's silhouette frame by frame as she moves rightward across a page. She is apparently aging before our eyes, growing progressively older and more stooped as she succumbs to osteoporosis. By the last frame she needs the support of a cane.

Another ad, obviously directed to the over-50 age group, pictures a stereotypical white-haired old lady leaning out of a car window and holding a glass of dark liquid. The headline reads: 'Prune Power To Go." Accompanying copy describes the virtues of a prune product in dealing with a failing digestive system.

Both ads reflect the lack of respect and fear of aging in short, the ageism typical of the media's treatment of older people. For years, advertising and entertainment media alike reflected the prevailing stereotype of seniors as bumbling, crotchety or senile. With perpetual frowns on their faces, the older people in shows and commercials lived only to criticize younger people and nurse their aches and pains.


The effects of ageism:

Not only are negative stereotypes hurtful to older people, but they may even shorten their lives, finds psychologist Becca Levy, PhD, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. In Levy's longitudinal study of 660 people 50 years and older, those with more positive self-perceptions of aging lived 7.5 years longer than those with negative self-perceptions of aging. The study appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 83, No. 2).



Abridged
SOURCE:     MyElderAdvocate


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Maintenance and Welfare of Parents Act (INDIA)

TNN, Jan 17, 2011

Any person who does not care for his or her parents, grandparents and leaves them in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning them, is punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three months or fine that may extend to Rs 5,000, or both. The UT administration has notified the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 in August 2009. However, due to a lack of awareness, only a couple of cases have come up before SDMs so far. According to the notification, every offence under this Act will be tried summarily by a magistrate. No civil court will have the jurisdiction in respect of any matter pertaining to this matter. No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any action taken in good faith under this Act. 

Those deserting their parents may be directed to pay a maximum maintenance allowance of Rs 10,000 per month which can be awarded by the Tribunal. The complaint can be filed with the SDM for the maintenance and the Deputy Commission will be an appellant authority. Once the tribunal is satisfied that a senior citizen — parent or grandparent — is unable to take care of himself and there is neglect or refusal of maintenance on the part of the children or relative, it may direct one or all children or relatives to pay to the applicant a monthly maintenance allowance, the upper limit of which shall be Rs 10,000. 

The SDM would have to pass orders within 90 days of the receipt of application. The Act has also been kept free from advocacy, as the aggrieved parents, grandparents or senior citizens can apply before the district social welfare officer, who has been recommended to act as applicant's attorney before the tribunal.

SOURCE:     Times of India
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Woman Accused of Abusing Patients at Nursing Home (USA)

By CASSIE FOSS

January 13, 2011

A woman who was a caretaker at a Hilton Head Island nursing home was charged Thursday with three counts of elder abuse after a co-worker saw the employee verbally and physically assault a 93-year-old female patient, giving her a bloody nose, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office news release and incident report.

Sonia King, a Carolina House employee who was fired Monday, turned herself in at the Sheriff's Office Hilton Head substation at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

King, 41, of Estill, is charged with three counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult in connection with an ongoing investigation into possible patient mistreatment by King at Carolina House at 35 Beach City Road, according to the release.

The Sheriff's Office is continuing to investigate whether King assaulted other patients during her employment. It was unclear Thursday how long she had worked there.

The investigation began Dec. 31 after Carolina House executive director Rhoneda Maury told deputies another employee saw King physically and verbally assault at least three female patients during her rounds that morning, according to the release.

The reporting employee recorded the incidents on an audio device she had been carrying with her, the release said.

Abridged
SOURCE:    Island Packet.Com


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'Grannycam' Video Spurs Stat to Shut Fair Oaks Care Home (CA. USA)

By Cynthia Hubert

January 14, 2011

Shortly after his grandmother moved into a residential care home in Fair Oaks, Sean Suh installed a small camera beside her bed to make sure the staff knew someone was watching.

But often when he visited, he said, he would find the "Grannycam" unplugged.

Suh decided to find a new place for Kyong Hui Duncan, a Korean immigrant and beloved matriarch who had become too frail to live on her own. But by the time he found one, Duncan, 73, was dead from a constellation of problems that her grandson said were inflicted upon her at Fair Oaks Residential Elderly Care.

A short video clip captured by Suh's "Grannycam" that shows a staffer violently shaking Duncan in her wheelchair now plays a key role in the state's decision to shut down the care home. The clip, which Suh discovered only after Duncan's death, is also at the center of a civil lawsuit the family filed Thursday that charges abuse, neglect and wrongful death.

Abridged
SOURCE:    SACBEE.COM






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