The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act ,(OBRA), was established officially in 1987. This act was necessary as a result of abuse, neglect and poor quality care that was present in all nursing facilities. Children, veterans, mentally handicapped, and elderly were the prime populations in nursing institutions. In this essay, OBRA of '87, under the Nursing Home Care Act regarding the elderly, will be explored and addressed. The policy was established due to severe issues in elderly population facilities. Severe issues included: frequent use of restraints and psychotropic drugs, low quality care, and understaffed facilities. Standards of nursing home care and certain rights for for the elderly residents in the U.S. were enforced by Federal law. State and Federal government were required by law to scrutinize nursing homes and create higher quality standards by using a variety of sanctions. Some of the sanctions included: residents be handed their bill of rights manually, frequent one-on-one evaluations to be implemented, and a requirement of complete care plans and services. Overall, this bill was crucial with respect to a fast growing population that was filling up nursing facilities across America. Implications for Social Work Practice This policy is instrumental for the social work profession for numerous reasons. First and foremost, the 1987 requirement by Federal law, stated that if there are more than 120 beds in a nursing facility, they are required to hire a full time social worker. This opened up a whole new market for social workers, they were now a necessary employee required to be hired by law; and therefore they were viewed as a significant and empirical asset to the well-being of the geriatric population. The new law... ... middle of paper ... ...1. http://search.proquest.com.lb-proxy8.touro.edu/docview/304709901/abstract?accountid=14375 Kumar, Virender. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2001. 3007831. http://nationalpriorities.org/en/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/ Vladeck, B. C., & Twentieth Century Fund. (1980). Unloving care: The nursing home tragedy. New York: Basic Books. “What is nursing home quality and how is it measured”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2915498/ http://www.dbhds.virginia.gov/documents/manuals/OMH-OBRAhandbook2000.pdf http://info.humanrights.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/IRConceptions.pdf Institutional and Residual Conceptions of Human Rights Jim Ife and Lucy Fiske Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University of Technology Interview with , M.D.S co0ordinator, Daughters of Miriam Instutute
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) supports workers, who have lost the right to their health benefits, so that they can keep their employer-sponsored group health plan in force. The need for continued insurance coverage is necessary when coverage is interrupted due to the loss of a job, reduced working hours, death of the insured employee, divorce or even other circumstances that affect a person’s life. A person who qualifies for the group health benefit is usually expected to pay for that premium. The employer may increase the premium up to 102 percent, which is allowed under the provisions of COBRA. The law applies to all employer-sponsored group plans who have 20 and above employees and urges them to ensure an extension of the health coverage that is temporary (Magill, 2009).
The American people needed help more than ever. Due to the Great Depression and war, many hospitals became obsolete and over 40% of the nation’s countries didn't have any hospitals. Luckily, a new law passed by Congress would solve that problem. Following the Great Depression and war, the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, also known as the Hill-Burton Act was passed in 1946. The Hill-Burton Act was to provide grants and loan to facilities for the construction of nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, hospitals and health centers (Health & Human Services, 2000). Facilities receiving these funds had three rules to follow: they weren’t allowed to discriminate based on race, color, national origin, or creed, though some ‘separate but equal’ facilities were allowed, provide a ‘reasonable volume’ of free care each year for those residents in the facility’s area who needed care but could not afford to pay and states and localities were also required to prove the economic viability of the facility in question (Newman, 2004).
In conclusion there needs to be an increase in government funding for long term care facilities to convey maximum ability to provide quality of care to elders and equal accessibility too homes and care. Ways that can produce this outcome are increases in staff funding for training and recruitment, as well as for equipment to help increase care. Government funding should also help elders decrease the cost of living in nursing homes and allow equal accessibility to homes and care in homes.
When long-Term Care services were developing many mistakes had been made on the way to develop Long Care Services. “Nursing homes evolved during the 20th century without any clear national policy or direction.” (Sarah Thompson, 2008 ) There was a lot of tragedy’s, mistakes, errors and abuse because there wasn’t any type of direction or nation policy. If there was some type of direction on how to run these services there might not be so many cases of ne...
ed. Vol. 2. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 973-974. Yaeger, Bert D. The
... Brussard, Billee, ed., pp. 113- SummerMatters.com - "SummerMatters" 21 June. 2001. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' Web.
In 1965 the first Aging American’s Act was passed. This legislation was part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society reform. In passing this legislation nearly 50 years ago, the government created a new department the focused on the rights and needs of the gaining population called the United States Administration on Aging. The original legislation was complete with seven titles. The articles include Title I—the Declaration of Objectives for Older Americans; Title II—Establishment of Administration on aging; Title III—Grants for state and community programs on aging; Title IV—Activities for health and independence, and longevity; Title V—Community service senior opportunities act; Title VI—Grants for Native Americans; and Title VII—allotments for vulnerable elder rights protection activities. Each of these titles are present in the most recent Aging Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2013. Each of the titles in the original and reauthorization have levels of measure to ensure that the legislation is enacted in a manner that will protect the aging population. The titles provide guidance to involved organizations and caregivers ensuring each is properly educated in treating the medical and mental health needs of the aging population as well as recognizing, reporting, and preventing elderly abuse, neglect, and physical, mental, and financial exploitation.
Paper 205. http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/facultypublications/205 4. Williams, Heather. Andrea.
to follow the rules and regulations and comply with the law. The social worker may be facing an
Upon growing older there are many decisions to be made. Among one of the most difficult and perhaps most important decisions is where the elder person will live and how long-term care needs will be met when he/she is no longer capable of doing so independently due to the incapacity that accompanies many with old age. Nursing homes seem to be the popular choice for people no matter the race, gender, or socioeconomic status with 1.5 million Americans being admitted to them yearly.[3] Because nursing homes are in such a high demand and are not cheap, $77.9 billion was spent for nursing home care in the United States in 2010 alone, they are under criticism of many professions including the legal profession, which is in the process of establishing elder law as a defense to issues with in the elder community. Nursing homes have a duty to provide many things to the elderly including medical, social, pharmaceutical, and dietary services so that the individual may maintain the highest well-being possible.[4] Stated another way 'a nursing facility must care for its residents in such a manner and in such an environment as will promote maintenance or enhancement of the q...
Nursing homes who receive federal funds are required to comply with federal laws that specify that residents receive a high quality of care. In 1987 Congress responded to reports of widespread neglect and abuse in nursing homes during 1980’s, which enacted legislation to reform nursing home regulations and require nursing homes participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to comply with certain requirements for quality of care. The legislation, included in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, which specifies that a nursing home “must provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable phys...
These facilities are regulated by the state and federal government and these regulations protects the senior residents. For example it is mandatory for the facilities in Texas to provide mandatory services such as daily living activities like dressing, feeding or help prepare meals and cleaning. Depending on the facility license the staff would have to assist with financial management and certain medical services. Even though the federal government developed guidelines the state can make their own as long as it complies with the federal government. Some organizations may accept private pay while others accepted Medicaid. Regulations are developed to protect residence that from being in an unsafe environment. As a result some assisted living and nursing homes are unable to continue services by having fines or closing for an unknown amount of time. Since each state has different set of regulations I will focus on the state regulations in Texas because it is the state I reside in. The organization in Texas that regulates assisted living and nursing homes is the Department of Aging and Disability services(DADS).
He said that low staff levels and inadequate training are the most common contributors of elderly abuse. There are problems resulting from these factors. Firstly, some nursing homes do not have enough staff members and the only option that they have is to overload the work for nurses, causing an increase in work hours and high number of residents per staff. Secondly, inadequate training is a significant factor because when newly graduated nurses start working in nursing homes, they do not have the appropriate training on what to do to take care of an elderly person (Bern-Klug and Sabri, 2012). For example, in cases where the client is having a seizure, of bathing the resident, or reacting to medical emergencies, these newly graduated nurses are not trained in the rights of the elderly adult. This is where the abuse can be found to originate.
Having worked in the field of geriatrics, in a nursing home setting, I have had the opportunity to be involved in the direct care of the elderly. Over a period of time, I have come to accept living one's last years in a nursing home as an eventual "normal" response to the aging process. As a result of this study, I anticipate having an enlarged perspective and an enhanced sensitivity to the psychosocial aspects of aging.
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 45. Hereafter the textual citation will be in the text of the paper.