CNN Report: Sexual Assaults in Nursing Homes

CNN has published an investigative report on sexual assault of residents in nursing homes.  Sick, dying and raped in America’s nursing homes opens with these paragraphs “Some of the victims can’t speak. They rely on walkers and wheelchairs to leave their beds. They have been robbed of their memories. They come to nursing homes to be cared for… Instead, they are sexually assaulted… The unthinkable is happening at facilities throughout the country: Vulnerable seniors are being raped and sexually abused by the very people paid to care for them.”

The report looks at a variety of issues and the failings of the system in responding to the attacks.

In cases reviewed by CNN, victims and their families were failed at every stage. Nursing homes were slow to investigate and report allegations because of a reluctance to believe the accusations — or a desire to hide them. Police viewed the claims as unlikely at the outset, dismissing potential victims because of failing memories or jumbled allegations. And because of the high bar set for substantiating abuse, state regulators failed to flag patterns of repeated allegations against a single caregiver.

The facts of the cases are hard to read but important in understanding the scope and significance of these crimes.   The perpetrators were as young as teenagers or as old as the victims.  Some were caregivers, others residents.

Rather than summarizing any further, just read the story.  Nothing I can add here would give you the same impact.

Responses to the report from the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care and others can be accessed here.