Does Your LTC Facility Have Policies on Intimacy and Sexual Behavior?

Two challenging topics for many families: how to handle death and intimacy for aging family members. We’re probably doing better coming to grips with the need to address death than intimacy. When long-term care is required, involving third-parties, the question of sexual behavior can become more important.

Along that line, Bryan Gruley at Bloomberg News wrote a thoughtful series addressing the social, legal, moral — and just plain tough — questions connected to sexual behavior that can arise with older persons in congregate settings.

See:

Part 1: Boomer Sex with Dementia Foreshadowed in Iowa Nursing Home.

Part 2:  Sex in Geriatrics Sets Hebrew Home (Riverdale NY) Apart in Elderly Care

Bloomberg Visual Data:  Elder Care Sex Survey Finds Caregiviers Seeking More Training

The Bloomberg series quotes Albany Law School Professor Evelyn Tenenbaum, a civil rights, health care, and bioethics scholar, citing her article “To Be or to Exist: Standards for Deciding Whether Dementia Patients in Nursing Homes Should Engage in Intimacy, Sex and Adultery” from the Indiana Law Review.