ABOUT GOLDENTEARS
A lifetime of drying the tears of others should not result in one’s "golden years" being marked by sadness and grief at the hands of unscrupulous nursing home staff!
This website is an attempt to create a collective voice for those who suffered (or have suffered) in nursing homes. Singularly, you have but one voice, one story. But nursing home abuse is not about just one incident or some impersonal statistics. It is about a great number of people (mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and sometimes even children) who live in fear and disgrace having little recourse and sometimes no one to dry their lonely, shattered tears.
Oftentimes, even when the abused has a loved one who serves as an advocate, that advocate is commonly overwhelmed by a maze of rules, regulations, laws, etc. which do not welcome anyone QUESTIONING the system. Frequently, the documentation to substantiate the abuse/neglect is intentionally missing (or incomplete) so as to hamper the efforts of an investigation and protect the facility and the guilty staff. There is a "code of silence" which haunts good nursing home personnel, and a belief that breaking this code will result in severe career ramifications. So the good ones do their best and try to compensate for the predators, slackers and abusers. And residents suffer…and they cry. Currently, an estimated 17,000 nursing homes exist in the United States, and more than one in five were cited last year for hiring staff with a history of abuse.
According to an analysis of the federal government's nursing home inspection database it was discovered that more than 1,000 homes were cited last year for hiring staff with a history of abuse.
[For the Complete story, visit CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/02/25/
eveningnews/main165186.shtml.]Keep in mind, that an advocate is ONLY ONE VOICE… which warrants only slightly better consideration than that given to actual residents, who are often dismissed as having "dementia, poor memory, etc." As a goal, this site wishes to combine the voices of those that currently suffer and have suffered in the past. THE NURSING HOME LOBBY IS WEALTHY AND POWERFUL, and as a result, many of our representatives have catered to their requests. But as a collective constituency, we will hold a greater power! There are a lot of "us" out there, so the goal is to join together to produce a public outcry for change. A CNN report indicates that there should be at least 22,000 families in California who feel strongly about nursing home maltreatment:
In California, a study from 1986-93 found that 22,000 California nursing home residents had died from starvation, dehydration or bed sores. (This statistic accounts for only one state!)
[For the complete story, visit CNN INTERACTIVE
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9807/27/
nursing.home.care/.]Similar horror is playing out all over our country, and it is time that we stop tolerating it ! We should be sickened and outraged and refuse to be quiet or look the other way. At Golden Tears, there is a simple plan (see "Spred the Word"), it should only take a few minutes of your time, and no cost should be incurred.
For those who have passed, this effort will make sure their golden tears were not shed in vain. For those who still suffer, our collective efforts will help to dry their tears and make them safe. Please go to "Spred the Word."
Maureen B. Cruse, Founder
Daughter of Nursing Home Victim
MaryLorraine Lillian Heck-Cruse