In An Attempt To Calm Down Agitated Nursing Home Residents, Patients Are Often Unnecessarily Sedated : By Derek Baine

An old woman with a bruised eye and hand on her face.


I have witnessed first hand nursing home and assisted living facilities giving seniors heavy medication in order to just keep them quiet, sometimes even restraining them.  The New York Times recently wrote a story about this practice saying that 1 in 5 nursing homes prescribe Antipsychotics, which are extremely dangerous to give to the elderly, particularly those with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.  The story highlighted David Blakeney, who entered a nursing home with severe dementia.  He was restless and agitated and the facility’s physician wanted to prescribe Haldol, a powerful sedative.   “Add Dx schizophrenia for use of Haldol,†read the doctor’s order, which essentially added another diagnosis of schizophrenia despite the fact that there were no signs the patient had that condition.  These types of drugs are commonly referred to as chemical straightjackets and, unfortunately, they can nearly double the chance of death from heart problems, infections, falls and other ailments for seniors with dementia. But with nursing homes understaffed, it’s an easy solution to just sedate more patients so they can be handled with less staff.  The patient in the Times article died at the early age of 64 just eight months after being put on Haldol, but not before suffering devastating weight loss, pneumonia and the amputation of one of his feet due to severe bedsores.  This should not happen in this country.  If you have a loved one in a facility, regularly ask for a list of prescriptions that they are on.  This is all too common.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/11/health/nursing-homes-schizophrenia-antipsychotics.html

Nursing Homes And Assisted Living Facilities Tepid On Mandating COVID-19 Vaccinations, Biden Takes Action

Three vaccine bottles are shown with the words " covid-1 9 coronavirus vaccine ".


There is no question that there is a major labor shortage, we are suffering from this ourselves.  A recent report said that senior housing facilities are also being hard hit, with employees hard to find and commercial property values sinking as few investors want to be in this type of industry.  However, it’s unclear that many are doing everything in their power to please the customers.  About 39% of senior housing associations surveyed between July 22 and August 8 said that they definitely or probably would impose vaccine mandates.  That’s a surprisingly low number.  We have seen an influx of new clients due to adult children moving their parents out of facilities due to their fear of COVID-19.  That’s only likely to increase as new variants spread.  Thankfully, President Biden has stepped in and said that if nursing homes don’t require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 they will no longer receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.  The current nursing home vaccination rate sits at only 61.5%, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  This is only a hair above the total population.  Some nursing home executives have bristled at the new Biden mandate, stating that staff departures may exceed 20%.  Good riddance I say to the anti-vaxers.  Keep them away from our seniors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/senior-housing-industry-faces-higher-costs-as-it-plays-lead-role-in-vaccine-mandates-11630411200?mod=djem10point