Nursing Home Abuse: By the Numbers

In many cultures, the elderly are honored and beloved members of the community. Tragically, it seems many senior citizens do not receive the respect they deserve in their old age. For those afflicted, nursing home abuse destroys the possibility for what should be peaceful twilight years.

For years, horror stories about nursing home abuse have plagued the media, but the statistics are truly shocking. Recent numbers show that 30% of all nursing home facilities in the United States have reported instances of abuse. Among individual patients, an alarming 81% reported some kind of abuse, be it physical, verbal or other.

Tragically, though, many more cases occur but go unreported. Experts have concluded that for every one case of abuse reported, another five go unreported. Many patients are not cognitively able to report crimes against them, so we can truly only guess how ubiquitous elder abuse really is.

One of the most shocking statistics related to nursing home abuse is that 90% of abusers are known to the victim. Often, the abusers are the children or spouse of the victim. Other times, nurses and attendants are guilty.

Nursing home abuse may seem horrifying at first glance, it is even more shocking than many people realize. Not just a one-time problem, abuse truly affects senior citizens in the long run – those afflicted are 300 times more likely to die than those who are not abused.

These disturbing facts are a window into a world many of us will one day face ourselves.