Elder Care Catastrophe: Rituals of Abuse in Nursing Homes and What You Can Do About it

by Ulsperger,Jason

• ISBN13: 9781594519079
• ISBN10: 1594519072
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-11-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

As the baby boom generation enters retirement age, greater numbers of people eventually will enter nursing homes. Portraying people who have lived in worked in long-term facilities, and family members struggling with nursing home issues, Elder Care Catastrophereveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. It is the only book on nursing homes to use systematic research and sociological theory to understand different types of nursing home maltreatment. The book provides critical information to any lay person, nursing home employee, policymaker, student or researcher concerned with elder care issues, and offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes.

Author Biography

Jason S. Ulsperger, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arkansas Tech University, has been a volunteer in nursing homes throughout the southern United States. He is the author of many articles on nursing home law, elder abuse, and nursing home reform. J. David Knottnerus, Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University, is the author and coeditor of numerous articles and books in the areas of social theory, social psychology, and social structure and inequality, including most recently Ritual as a Missing Link (Paradigm 2010).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Just Wanting to Die	p. 1
Bureaucracy and Rituals in Everyday Life	p. 27
A History of Nursing Homes	p. 44
Rules over Compassion	p. 67
Products Not People	p. 83
Tranquilizing the Troublemakers	p. 99
I'm No Baby	p. 115
Alternatives to Bureaucracy in Nursing Homes	p. 129
The Bureaucratic Boom: Are There Other Options?	p. 166
Research Methods	p. 179
A Brief Guide for Nursing Home Selection	p. 183
References	p. 188
Index	p. 211
About the Authors	p. 221
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