Nursing home violence occurs between one and five residents, reports a new study.
Karl Pillemer, a Cornell University gerontologist and researcher, recounted an actual, and typical, example from his latest study:
"Resident A is sitting in a wheelchair in a common area, yelling out. Resident B goes over and says, 'Be quiet, stop yelling.' Resident A hits Resident B on the hand. The nursing aide separates them, then sees someone else wandering and has to leave. When she does, Resident B kicks Resident A, and the cycle continues."
The study was conducted after increased public concerns were reported about violence towards the elderly (they had a mean age of 84 years). Most of the research on violence against the elderly before this study covered scenarios outside of the nursing home, according to the general findings of the new report.
Pillemer and his team studied the aggression in over 2,000 residents in 10 large nursing homes in New York State over the course of five years.
The researchers acknowledge the results could slightly differ from actuality because of the challenges that come with interviewing the elderly. They found that the elderly living in these nursing homes were often suffering from dementia, poor hearing or sight, or a fear of retaliation. Staff members weren't always resent during resident aggression and were limited with what they could say because of their supervisors.
Pillemer believes these factors could be underestimating the issue at hand, reported New York Times.
Of those surveyed 16 percent had experienced incidents of verbal mistreatment within the previous month. Others reported physical (six percent), sexual mistreatment (1.3 percent) or "other" forms (10.5 percent) - such as other residents entering their rooms uninvited or rummaging through their belongings.
"We were shocked by how extensive this was," Pillemer told NYT of the study.
The study was presented at the Gerontological Society of America's annual meeting in Washington earlier this month.
