Elder Abuse in Connecticut's Nursing Homes

ABSTRACT

This study investigates abuse and neglect concerns from the nursing home resident's perspective in the state of Connecticut through a retrospective case record review. Complaints tracked from July 1998 through July 2000, using the Connecticut Ombudsman Reporting System, totaled 3,443 and were combined with related data from all of the state's nursing homes (N = 261). Within the total number of complaints, analysis centered on the subcategories of abuse, gross neglect, exploitation (n = 269), and care (n = 791). Findings show that 69% of Connecticut's nursing homes had accounts of care complaints and 47% had one or more accounts of abuse. Identifying abuse and care concerns in Connecticut's nursing homes may lead to the exposition of additional patterns related to abuse and care in other institutional settings and merits further exploration of staffing characteristics in relation to abuse.

KEYWORDS:

• Elder abuse
• elder neglect
• long-term care
• nursing home consumers
• Ombudsman program
• quality of care