Sick, Dying and Raped in America's Nursing Homes
It’s a difficult time when a loved one is placed in a nursing home. Families have to trust staff to care for those who sometimes can’t speak, walk or remember. But a CNN investigation finds that trust misplaced in unthinkable ways: sexual assaults of residents, a scandal involving more than 1,000 nursing homes nationwide.
CNN found that homes are often slow to investigate allegations of sexual abuse and that the police are equally dismissive of allegations because of victims' faulty memories. It's a pattern that makes it easier for miscreant caregivers to continue abusing patients.
Since 2000, more than 16,000 complaints of such sexual abuse have been reported across the country. But many states do not separately track sexual abuse allegations at nursing homes, instead lumping them in with allegations of other forms of abuse.
CNN surveyed the health departments and agencies overseeing nursing facilities in all 50 states, and found that responses and oversight of the problem varied wildly.
"Despite the litany of abuses detailed in government reports, there is no comprehensive, national data on how many cases of sexual abuse have been reported in facilities housing the elderly," the investigation found.
Read the full series here.
