Long Term Care Education.com

….this is a hotly debated topic.  Feelings about sexual behaviors among residents (and between residents and others) tend to be strongly held.   Does a person lose the right to consent to sexual activity upon entering a nursing home?

Who makes the decision as to whether either or both parties are consenting adults exercising their personal rights?    As the attached article suggests, this is an area which each nursing home administrator has to think through, develop policies and successfully implement those policies.  Additionally, depending on the state, there are reporting and actions required laws that must be obeyed regardless of what policy or beliefs any facility owners or administrators may put into place……..how would you have handled the two situations described in this article?

PACE the federal program to keep residents in their home setting as long as possible has been on the scene for several decades…..but the push by the Federal and state governments to delay entry into nursing homes (to save money) together with the expected billions of dollars cuts in Medicare and Medicaid over the next few years likely means that the resident population of nursing facilities will continue to consist mostly of very sick residents.  Tough financial (and possibly occupancy rate) times appear to be on the horizon as seen in this New York Times article….what do you think?

This article about Ms. Nunziata provides insights into the everyday economic realities of our current long term care industry……..the right to sue anyone is a valuable right we all enjoy (and likely ought to preserve), but this right to sue also stimulates defensive behaviors for nursing facility owners and managers such as those described here……