Nursing home abuse still exists - but that's no surprise, is it?

Abuse of the weakest among us is something that has gone on for generations. It may not have been talked about and it may have been tolerated, but it happened. And it continues to happen. We read about child abuse, we read about animal abuse, but we don't read often about elder or senior abuse. But it exists - everywhere, even in nursing homes in Nova Scotia, Canada.

There is no excuse for abuse. You *may* be able to make an excuse for neglect in some cases (please notice the asterix around "may", I am not saying this is the case), but you can't ever justify abuse.

According to an article published by the Canadian Press, there were 30 cases of abuse in one particular nursing over the course of a year, "Opposition politician calls a "disturbing" signal that some caregivers are overworked and undertrained." You can be overworked as you want, that does NOT make you hit or abuse a patient.

Again, according to the article,

"The total list of abuses is broken into categories: physical, emotional, a mixture of physical and emotional, sexual, financial and institutional neglect.

However, a Health Department spokeswoman declined to give a precise breakdown of how staff abused residents, other than to say "over half" of the 30 cases were of physical abuse, or a mixture of physical and emotional abuse."

Over work and understaffing can and does often result in some neglect, things being missed or not being done, but *abuse*? That's just plain ridiculous.

Here is the article so you can draw your own conclusions. What do you think?

 Nursing home residents suffered 30 incidents of abuse