Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 3, 1990 TAG: 9006060005
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE MURRAY
DATELINE: ANGELINA COUNTY, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
Imagine the national outrage if a government study showed that more than a third of America's school cafeterias failed to meet standards for clean food.
That's exactly what has happened, here in my hometown and throughout the United States. But it didn't happen to the children in our schools. It happened to the elderly in our nursing homes.
The case of patient abuse, involving a 95-year-old woman, was reported in the local newspaper. The study on substandard conditions in nursing homes nationwide was reported by the Associated Press.
If there was much of an outrage, I missed out on it.
I'm not saying we couldn't care less about our elderly.
I'm simply saying we do care less about them - that as a community, we concern ourselves more with the well-being of our young children than our aged parents and grandparents.
Indeed, Mother Nature takes much the same view, that of perpetuating the species. But as individuals we're being a bit short-sighted. Those of us not good enough to die young are all going to end up old folks in the nursing home.
In any case, we ought to be as concerned about our nursing homes as we are our schools, helping to make the good ones better at what they do and the bad ones sorry for what they've done. After all, the same as schools, nursing homes are tax-supported through state and federal assistance programs for the elderly. Unlike our schools, they lack local regulation.
But what if . . .
What if communities elected nursing home boards, the same as school boards, made up of public-spirited private citizens representing the needs of our elderly?
What if citywide public meetings were conducted monthly, the same as school board meetings, with an open agenda for anyone who had a question, a complaint or a concern about local nursing homes?
What if we took the same pride in having good nursing homes as they do in having good schools, honoring our elderly and their nurses as we do our students and their teachers?
What if nursing homes were franchised through city or county entities and therefore answerable to local regulations and oversight. Surely the care of our elderly deserves no less local scrutiny than, say, cable TV service.
But if nothing else, what if we had a volunteer organization to support patients of nursing homes, as strong and as active as the PTA, the Band Boosters or the Downtown Quarterback Club?
On the other hand, what if nothing is done? What will happen then?
Well, nothing that hasn't happened before, that isn't happening now.
Every year or so, there'll be a government report showing that a great percentage of the nation's nursing homes are little more than ghettos for the aged.
Every now and then, there'll be a newspaper story reporting the abuse of nursing home patients, minor, serious or fatal.
The only difference is that one of these days it'll be happening to you and, eventually, to your children.
by CNB