Nursing Home Facts and the Effects on the Elderly and Disabled
Deindividuation: Reduced capacity for thought, action, and self-direction.
Disculturation: Refers to the loss of lifelong rules and behaviors that provide the individual with sources of self-affirmation.
Emotional, Social, and Physical Damage: The losses of status, security and sources of self-affirmation are often not recouped and adaptation to a normal environment is difficult.
Isolation: The longer one remains in an institution, the greater the isolation from society in general occurs. Isolation can foster a feeling of being different from "normal people".
Stimulus Deprivation: The deadening of the senses. Psychologists conclude that individuals residing in institutional settings are psychologically worse off and likely die sooner than aged persons living in the community.
Institutional Environmental Effects: Due to understaffing, physical neglect or medication and immobility, patients tend to become sicker after admission.
Source: "The Nursing Home in American Society" by Professor Colleen Johnson and Dr. Leslie Grant of John Hopkins University.
