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Survey Sponsors Say Baby Boomers Are Anxious About Massachusetts Nursing Homes
A new survey of 250 Massachusetts Baby Boomers shows overwhelming anxiety about nursing homes with 90 percent of those surveyed fearing a move into a nursing home, according to a news release issued April 25, 2017 by the survey sponsor, Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (MANHR).
Ninety-two percent of respondents do not support the nursing home industry’s attempts to reduce protections for nursing home residents, MANHR said. Eighty eight percent felt nursing homes in Massachusetts did not have enough staff to provide quality care.
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“Such strong negative results show that the vast majority of Massachusetts nursing homes are not living up to their promise of quality care,” said Arlene Germain, president, MANHR. The nursing home industry continues to work hard to remove regulations – we call them protections — that ensure the care, safety, and dignity of nursing home residents.”
Ninety-six percent of Massachusetts ‘Baby Boomers’ favor comprehensive reform to improve the lives of nursing home residents with 88 percent agreeing the Massachusetts Legislature does not make the quality of care of nursing home residents a high enough priority. Ninety-seven percent believe it is important for nursing homes where abuse occurs to be shut down.
“Nursing home residents are ‘the forgotten ones’ as most people don’t pay attention to this truly needy segment of our population,” said Martin Alintuck, senior advisor at MANHR. “When our elderly need help the most, we fail them by not reforming a system that many of them must choose because they get old and run out of money.”
Other Survey Results:
- 73 percent do not believe nursing homes make the best interests of their residents a priority.
- 86 percent do not believe there is enough media coverage of nursing home problems in Massachusetts.
- 66 percent do not believe it is right the Commonwealth does not have enough resources to investigate and police the thousands of annual complaints about nursing homes.
The MANHR/SurveyMonkey research was conducted between March 31, 2017 and April 11, 2017. The 250 respondents, 44 percent male and 56 female female, live in Massachusetts and are between the ages of 52-72.
MANHR said it is the only consumer group in Massachusetts advocating for nursing home residents.
I am awaiting a response to the news release from the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, the state affiliate of the American Health Care Association (AHCA). The AHCA is a non-profit federation of affiliate state health organizations, together representing more than 13,500 non-profit and for-profit nursing facility, assisted living, developmentally-disabled, and subacute care providers that care for approximately 1 million elderly and disabled individuals each day.
