Health care Policy Analysis: Elderly Maltreatment in Long-term Care Facilities
Problem-Statement:
What method should long-term care facilities adopt to reduce elder maltreatment incidents?
Background:
There are many forms of elderly maltreatment that may occur within a long-term care facility. Maltreatment can be physical, psychological, sexual, and/or financial harm. The action or behavior exhibited that caused harm to the individual is called abuse. The failure to act or behave in a manner which resulted in harm to the individual is called neglect. So it is important to understand that even if a staff member “did not” do anything to an elderly resident, but failed to provide care, the staff member is still held liable for the harm caused …show more content…
Therefore, the demands of long-term care facilities will increase resulting in the increasing demands of health care personnel. When any facility is short-staff, staff members are more likely to be overworked and mental exhausted. As a result, staff members will be more likely to perform and react based on instinct than on knowledge; which will increase the risk of elderly maltreatment.
Legal Factors: Due to the rising concerns of the poor quality of care provided in nursing facilities, there has been many health care rules created to improve the quality of care. The Social Security Act of 1974 strived to address those concerns, but due to vague parameters, there was a conflict on which people should receive more funding. The Long-Term Care Ombusman Program created resources for facilities and individuals to report suspicions of elderly abuse along with grants for the development of abuse prevention programs. The Elder Justice Act of 2009 falls under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act strictly focuses on reducing the maltreatment towards elderly individuals. The law provides an allocation of 770 million dollars toward methods to improve elderly …show more content…
The system will allow these individuals to report the incident without fear of being retaliated against and suffering more harm. The system may be a hotline or web-based. The disadvantage to this method is that even though it allows authorities to be informed, it does not provide the victim with medical or psychological help that may be required after the incident. The victim may not be able to properly cope with the negative incident and suffer traumatic
Problem-Statement:
What method should long-term care facilities adopt to reduce elder maltreatment incidents?
Background:
There are many forms of elderly maltreatment that may occur within a long-term care facility. Maltreatment can be physical, psychological, sexual, and/or financial harm. The action or behavior exhibited that caused harm to the individual is called abuse. The failure to act or behave in a manner which resulted in harm to the individual is called neglect. So it is important to understand that even if a staff member “did not” do anything to an elderly resident, but failed to provide care, the staff member is still held liable for the harm caused …show more content…
Therefore, the demands of long-term care facilities will increase resulting in the increasing demands of health care personnel. When any facility is short-staff, staff members are more likely to be overworked and mental exhausted. As a result, staff members will be more likely to perform and react based on instinct than on knowledge; which will increase the risk of elderly maltreatment.
Legal Factors: Due to the rising concerns of the poor quality of care provided in nursing facilities, there has been many health care rules created to improve the quality of care. The Social Security Act of 1974 strived to address those concerns, but due to vague parameters, there was a conflict on which people should receive more funding. The Long-Term Care Ombusman Program created resources for facilities and individuals to report suspicions of elderly abuse along with grants for the development of abuse prevention programs. The Elder Justice Act of 2009 falls under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act strictly focuses on reducing the maltreatment towards elderly individuals. The law provides an allocation of 770 million dollars toward methods to improve elderly …show more content…
The system will allow these individuals to report the incident without fear of being retaliated against and suffering more harm. The system may be a hotline or web-based. The disadvantage to this method is that even though it allows authorities to be informed, it does not provide the victim with medical or psychological help that may be required after the incident. The victim may not be able to properly cope with the negative incident and suffer traumatic