About that WWII Vet being laughed at in the nursing home

[NCDem777]

The nursing home industry would have you believe that the video of the WWII vet pleading for help and being left to die is the exception rather than the norm. But ask any disabled person liberated from nursing homes, and they'll tell you that they become horror shows after visiting hours. They're so common in fact that the industry pulls out all the stops to prevent these stories from getting out. The nursing home kept that video under lock and key for three years.

There's a good way to prevent stories like this: Support the Disability Integration Act.

Right now, most states' Medicare/Medicaid programs (the programs that pay for most nursing home residents) prioritize nursing homes. Less abusive, and also (perhaps more important to those who lean to the right) far less expensive options like home-based care, are a distant second.

The Disability Integration Act flips this around. Nursing homes become absolute last resorts.

Granted, this will probably close a lot of nursing homes, possibly kill off the industry, but considering horror stories such as this, it's a good riddance to bad rubbish situation.

[diva77]

1. some nursing homes also intimidate family members who try to speak up

[NCDem777]

2. True!

The Disability Integration Act is a winning issue for Dems on another front as well: Special needs parents.

Dirty secret of the disability community: Special needs parents tend to lean GOP. Dealing with public schools that treat IEP's as a suggestion list does tend to undermine one's faith in government. And unfortunately, talking about a time a Rethug was less than polite to a disabled person doesn't win over most special needs parents (who are often less than polite to their kids themselves).

But the thing is, as parents are getting older, they are facing tough questions.

Endorsing the Disability Integration Act will help Dems. Disability crosses political lines, a fact that many Republicans forget. Parents who have kids with severe disabilities in both red and blue America lay awake at night and wonder what their will do in the event they become incapacitated or dead.

The DIA provides some answers and an alternative to nursing prisons.

[underpants]

3. Elder Abuse hotlines by state and territory

https://ncea.acl.gov/resources/state.html

[blueinredohio]

4. I know, I worked in a nursing home years ago and after that experience

first I took care of my dad, had a couple year break and am now taking care of my mother. It has been a rough twenty years but I said as long as I could do it they would never go in a nursing home.

[dembotoz]

5. my father was in a nursing home for a few years...my mother visited him every damn ding dong day

this home has and still has an excellent reputation....that being said, my mom made me promise i would not put her in a home...
let her die in her home....she died in hospice but we did our damn best....

[lunamagica]

6. K&R for visibility.

[SweetieD]

7. My fear was this for my mom. She was hospitalized long term and I saw how

awful some of the nurses were. There was talks of them moving her to a nursing home but she died in the hospital from a stroke.

All that is to say, since I saw how the nurses at the long term center acted when they thought no one was looking, I knew that a nursing home would be a million times worse.