CHICAGO: Retirement communities and skilled nursing homes imply a level of elevated safety in their commercial pitch to prospective customers.
But evidence is mounting that age-apartheid compounds are increasingly becoming soft crime targets and the care sector is trashing its reputation by doing nothing to effectively counter the growing threat:
205. Arriving at the skilled nursing home just before lunch on Mother’s Day, the daughter walked into her mum’s room expecting to see her up, dressed and sitting comfortably, looking forward to a roast dinner.
But the scene that greeted her couldn’t have been more at odds with those expectations of a special day with the 95-year-old still fiercely proud despite her frail health and worsening dementia.
‘Mum was so upset and confused. ‘She told me: “I’ve had no breakfast, no one’s been in to see me.” Instead of being taken to the toilet, she had been left to lie all morning in her own urine.