Bullying in the nursing home?
QMedic Team
“And just try to get into a bridge game...they’ll talk about bridge, and you’ll say, ‘Oh, I play,’ and they’ll tell you, ‘Sorry, we’re not looking for anyone.’”
-Excerpted from NY Times, Mean Girls in the Retirement Home, 1/17/15
An interesting study by Cornell researchers has found that bullying and resident conflict in senior housing is more prevalent than we might realize. Here are some highlights:
- Study canvassed 10 senior retirement homes in NY State servicing over 2,000 residents
- Residents most likely to be involved in bullying incidents were people who were in the moderate stages of dementia, but were still physically able to move around
- 16% were involved in a verbal clash
- 10.5% experienced an invasion of privacy
- 6% were involved in a physical altercation such as kicking, biting, or hitting
- 1% experienced a sexual incident such as inappropriate touching/indecent exposure
Yikes!
