by Tdarcos » Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:54 am
Not-so-casual Observer wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:56 pm
Tdarcos wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:56 pm
I quote from your plea for help.
I live in a nursing home in the Rochester area. It has been nothing but horrific to me. The neglect.... showers every few months, being forced to take my insulin then the aides ignoring my requests for food when I have a doctor's note to eat in my room, and suffering low blood sugar because of that! Being screamed at, called a "f-ing retard" because I'm in a wheelchair. Being sexually assaulted by a male staff member when my wheelchair was restrained on the bus and I could not move away! There are tons of mice everywhere, especially in the kitchen. My boyfriend had mice footprints on his lunch yesterday, and his bed is soaked through from someone else's piss, so he had to flip it over! There are bedbugs, roaches, and I've even seen a big ol rat! Our income here only allows the two of us $200 per month each for allowances. How will we ever get out of here? We need your help! We are going to need help with 1st months rent, sec deposit, bed, couch etc... we literally have nothing.
1. You have a cell phone. Take pictures. Nothing beats evidence over the possibility of quick fixes to cover up problems.
2. If you can send mail without the employees seeing it, tell places about it. (Since you're scared, you don't want to send mail from your facility's outgoing mail) . If you need postage stamps I can send you some. Snail mail, separate e-mail not tied to you, anonymous phone calls. Your local food service licensing agency (if different from), the board of health, County Adult Protective Services. State health department. State Nursing home license board. Your local newspaper. Nearby ones if available. Major bationally recognized investigative journalism papers like
The Washington Post .Any rnews adio stations within 30 miles as well as any others that do their own news. Every television station within 50 miles.
3. Post reports (under a throwaway or separate account) for all social media.
4, Do Tik-Tok and YouTube videos showing the conditions.
5. See if there is a lawyer handling disability issues. If you have to file an ADA case, and you win, they have to pay your lawyer.
6. Post this to every place that accepts ratings like Yelp or similar places.
7. Google search for "nursimg home advocates Rochester" or a nearby town.
8. Look for groups doing videos on this issue and see if you can contact them
You have to advocate for yourself, don't let "leatned helplessness" seep in, no one else will fight for you as hard as you can.
No "learned helplessness " here.
We are saving every penny, not even buying groceries.
I am not going to war with my nurshome until I've moved out. I don't want to be thrown out, away from my boyfriend and friends, until I have the money to move. Thanks though.
That is inlikely to happen. First, once you have lived in a place for 30 days, you are a "tenant" of your facility, and the law gives you certain rights; they can't just throw you out on the street, they have to sue you and get an eviction, which if they did after you filed a complaint with a public agency, is a "retaliatory eviction," which means if they did try to evict you, a court would tell them that's illegal.
Further, if your nursing home is receiving medicare payments - almost a certainty - there are federal protections in effect in addition to local and state sanctions.
A nursing home might do any number of shady things, but they're not going to do something that would put them on the receiving end of a six- or seven-figure judgment for damages.
All of the things that you are complaining about, mice, rats, roaches, bedbugs, etc., are there because, in effect, you choose to allow them to continue. If you're seeing these, I'm sure you're not the only one. You do not have to identify yourself. Your fear of retaliation is the fuel that powers their neglect.
You can report these things anonymously. A letter or e-mail with no return address saying that Erewhon Nursing Home is infested with rats, mice, and roaches, especially in the kitchen, and mailed to the health department should help. Sending these to the TV and newspaper will also help get a response. If you don't put some light on the darkness, nobody sees what's there and things go on as usual.
Waiting until you can "afford" to leave is a pipe dream. It could take months, or longer. Bedbugs are a serious danger and could cause infections and make things worse.
I know that you're frightened. But unless you shine some light on the dark underbelly of neglect it will never improve. This is what I mean by "learned helplessness," you think there's nothing you can do. And as far as I see it, fear of retaliation is barely a hairs breadth fron the Stockholm Syndrome.
[quote="Not-so-casual Observer" post_id=135691 time=1678755400 user_id=2758]
[quote=Tdarcos post_id=135687 time=1678751764 user_id=829]
I quote from your plea for help.
[quote]I live in a nursing home in the Rochester area. It has been nothing but horrific to me. The neglect.... showers every few months, being forced to take my insulin then the aides ignoring my requests for food when I have a doctor's note to eat in my room, and suffering low blood sugar because of that! Being screamed at, called a "f-ing retard" because I'm in a wheelchair. Being sexually assaulted by a male staff member when my wheelchair was restrained on the bus and I could not move away! There are tons of mice everywhere, especially in the kitchen. My boyfriend had mice footprints on his lunch yesterday, and his bed is soaked through from someone else's piss, so he had to flip it over! There are bedbugs, roaches, and I've even seen a big ol rat! Our income here only allows the two of us $200 per month each for allowances. How will we ever get out of here? We need your help! We are going to need help with 1st months rent, sec deposit, bed, couch etc... we literally have nothing.[/quote]
1. You have a cell phone. Take pictures. Nothing beats evidence over the possibility of quick fixes to cover up problems.
2. If you can send mail without the employees seeing it, tell places about it. (Since you're scared, you don't want to send mail from your facility's outgoing mail) . If you need postage stamps I can send you some. Snail mail, separate e-mail not tied to you, anonymous phone calls. Your local food service licensing agency (if different from), the board of health, County Adult Protective Services. State health department. State Nursing home license board. Your local newspaper. Nearby ones if available. Major bationally recognized investigative journalism papers like [i]The Washington Post[/i] .Any rnews adio stations within 30 miles as well as any others that do their own news. Every television station within 50 miles.
3. Post reports (under a throwaway or separate account) for all social media.
4, Do Tik-Tok and YouTube videos showing the conditions.
5. See if there is a lawyer handling disability issues. If you have to file an ADA case, and you win, they have to pay your lawyer.
6. Post this to every place that accepts ratings like Yelp or similar places.
7. Google search for "nursimg home advocates Rochester" or a nearby town.
8. Look for groups doing videos on this issue and see if you can contact them
You have to advocate for yourself, don't let "leatned helplessness" seep in, no one else will fight for you as hard as you can.
[/quote]
No "learned helplessness " here.
We are saving every penny, not even buying groceries.
I am not going to war with my nurshome until I've moved out. I don't want to be thrown out, away from my boyfriend and friends, until I have the money to move. Thanks though.
[/quote]
That is inlikely to happen. First, once you have lived in a place for 30 days, you are a "tenant" of your facility, and the law gives you certain rights; they can't just throw you out on the street, they have to sue you and get an eviction, which if they did after you filed a complaint with a public agency, is a "retaliatory eviction," which means if they did try to evict you, a court would tell them that's illegal.
Further, if your nursing home is receiving medicare payments - almost a certainty - there are federal protections in effect in addition to local and state sanctions.
A nursing home might do any number of shady things, but they're not going to do something that would put them on the receiving end of a six- or seven-figure judgment for damages.
All of the things that you are complaining about, mice, rats, roaches, bedbugs, etc., are there because, in effect, you choose to allow them to continue. If you're seeing these, I'm sure you're not the only one. You do not have to identify yourself. Your fear of retaliation is the fuel that powers their neglect.
You can report these things anonymously. A letter or e-mail with no return address saying that Erewhon Nursing Home is infested with rats, mice, and roaches, especially in the kitchen, and mailed to the health department should help. Sending these to the TV and newspaper will also help get a response. If you don't put some light on the darkness, nobody sees what's there and things go on as usual.
Waiting until you can "afford" to leave is a pipe dream. It could take months, or longer. Bedbugs are a serious danger and could cause infections and make things worse.
I know that you're frightened. But unless you shine some light on the dark underbelly of neglect it will never improve. This is what I mean by "learned helplessness," you think there's nothing you can do. And as far as I see it, fear of retaliation is barely a hairs breadth fron the Stockholm Syndrome.