Nursing Homes Use Psychotropic Drugs Without Cause

[bunnysoft]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigation has found.

Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federal inspection reports show.

Lloyd Berkley, 74, was in a nursing home near Peoria for less than a day before staff members held him down and injected him with a large amount of an antipsychotic drug, according to a state citation. A few hours later he fell, suffering a fatal head injury.

One woman was given a psychotropic drug partly because she refused to wear a bra. Nursing home staff administered an antipsychotic medication to an 87-year-old man because he was "easily annoyed."

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-nursing-home1-psychotropics-oct27,0,4539632.story

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Check this out, from the article: "In some cases, an unwarranted diagnosis of mental illness is added to the patient's medical record to justify use of the drug."

So if they want to give an old lady a drug for disease X even though she didn't have disease X,they sometimes just lie about her having disease X in order to knock her out.

Very nice.

Keep an eye on your parents if they are in a nursing home.

[superconnected]

1. Thanks for posting this!

[WriteDown]

2. Reminds me a bit of Happy Gilmore. nt

[Warpy]

3. Your last sentence was the best part

and any elderly person in a nursing home needs visitors. That's the best way to prevent all kinds of abuse, let people know that person is cared for and will have an advocate should something happen.

I've worked in quite a few nursing homes. Usually there is a very good reason for a patient to be sedated, usually a violent outburst because all of a sudden they're surrounded by strangers in an unfamiliar setting and they flip out. While this could generally be addressed by non drug methods given adequate staffing, adequate staffing is just a pipe dream. We haven't had the will as a country to devote adequate resources to the care of our most vulnerable citizens, ever.

Until this country starts to care about something besides short term profit, the best bet for anyone with a relative in a nursing home is to visit as often as possible.

If you see something you don't like, ask the nurse on duty about it without accusing him or her. There is generally a reasonable explanation for it. But do ask. Please. Most of them are on your side.

[otherlander]

13. The country cares.

But the country is not self-ruled. Well, if you mean the people of the country, that is. But democratic elections for government positions are just a token of rule-by-the-people when most of the social institutions that we encounter in our day-to-day lives aren't controlled by the people using or working in them. :shrug:

[LibDemAlways]

4. It's unfortunately a hell of a lot easier for understaffed

nursing homes to drug elderly people and keep them as immobile as possible rather than keep a constant eye on them. My elderly father suffered from dementia. My mother cared for him, and it was hazardous for her to leave him alone for even a few minutes. I do not at all agree with the facilities' use of drugs to knock people out, but I understand why it happens. Considering what these places charge, though, the patients certainly deserve better.

[formercia]

10. Owners reduce staff to increase the bottom line

and this is one of the outcomes.

[barb162]

5. This crap happens nationwide.

Gotta keep those patients quiet and doped up beyond belief.

[Lars39]

6. I discovered that the nursing home my father was in wanted less mobility

for their patients...they were perfectly willing to let someone get around in a wheelchair rather than keep them mobile with a walker. :grr:

[barb162]

8. Yeah, they can't fall out of a wheelchair as easily as a walker

Nursung homes...argh.

[RobinA]

17. This is True

but the reason is that people don't fall as much from wheelchairs. Falls are a liability and falls are tracked by oversight agencies. Not saying it's right, but if you are going to be hammered if someone falls, you are going to make sure they don't fall - however you can.

[Recursion]

7. Oh, they have a cause

The cause is not wanting to deal with conscious old people.

[barb162]

9. Bingo!

[KT2000]

11. People in nursing homes

must be checked on constantly by loved ones. The staff is under constant pressure from the bean counters and must follow orders or be fired. They are people who work so hard and give so much of themselves as well, but they are tightly controlled by management.

Nursing homes are for-profit institutions and corners will be cut in a number of ways.

[BrklynLiberal]

12. The less active the patients are, the less care they have to provide, the smaller the staff

can be, the more profit they make.

The entire industry is a horror show.

[Odin2005]

14. Nursing homes are evil.

:grr:

[quakerboy]

15. Yup. Better that people who cant care for themselves_______

Care to fill in the blank?

[quakerboy]

16. So many problems. So few answers

The system is fucked. On the one hand, we generally no longer want to support our elders, particularly not in our own homes. I know I cringe at the idea of sharing a home with my parents again. On the other hand we are offended when they are not treated as revered elders by others. A fair disclaimer, I do not work in an nursing home, but my job has me visiting them quite often.

I have as yet to see any home that was what I would consider adequitely staffed. And I have as yet to see one where the people doing the shit work (literally) are paid enough to really care about someone else's crabby grandma or grumpy grandpa. And yet many of them do. There are always a couple residents who get regular family visits. Everyone else is lucky to see the Fam once a year. I know a whole lot of people who will be by them selves, in their rooms, with no visitors but the staff, this Christmas. I will be spending the week leading up to Christmas making a lot of visits to hang out with old people. But even I will be staying home with my own family on Christmas itself. Chances are good that even if my own Grandma hangs on till Christmas, and despite the fact I will likely be 5 blocks away at my aunts house, I probably won't visit her.

I know a lot of people who take psychotropic drugs. With very few exceptions, it was very clear why they needed to continue to do so. Rarely do they do it because they want to. Rarely do they believe it is necessary.