Kinga MamulskaWRD 103Petition – Rough Draft

The elderly and disabled suffer in nursing homes everyday due to poor care and not many

people may know or realize this. Most nursing homes may not give enough attention to the

individuals who are there. Many times there are cases when people in nursing home die and it isn’t

even noticed until many days or hours later. This shows that the staff in nursing homes don’t even

check up on the people and sometimes may not even feed them at proper times. Many nursing

homes smell bad and people often wonder why, the most reasonable explanation is that the people

in nursing homes are not even bathed regularly. The cleaning staff in nursing homes doesn’t pay

close attention to making the place clean and germ free. It has been a saying that people in prisons

have better treatment. At least people in prisons are guaranteed meals throughout the day and are

bathed regularly as well as given a lot of attention. People in nursing homes have a lack of freedom

and are told when to go to sleep and wake up. Many times they cannot even go outdoors when they

would like to. People who have to live in nursing home are degraded and do not have much of a

social life and are not treated like people.

This issue should be resolved because the elderly and disabled didn’t commit a crime yet

they have to suffer more than a person in prison would. People who live in nursing homes do not

deserve this kind of treatment and many times people do not even have a choice if they want to be

in a nursing home yet they end up in one. Better care and attention to the people is important

because people should not have to die because they are not being properly cared for. Nursing

homes, in a way, can be looked at as places where murder happens. Workers in nursing homes do

not care for the people who live in nursing homes and therefore when they die and it is noticed

many hours later, it can be looked at just like murder. There can be many illegal things done in

nursing homes that goes unnoticed because there isn’t a person who takes care of those kind of

issues. There should be punishment for those people who lead to deaths in nursing homes especially

if they go unnoticed for many hours or days.

Things that can be done to fix this issue are to have the government spend more money on

people in nursing homes, especially since the government spends more money on prisoners anyway.

Nursing homes should hire better staff and have more requirements for the workers there. Another

fix for this issue could be that people who are sent to nursing homes should be given more choices

such as living on their own with a person who cares for them for a few hours a day. People in

nursing homes can also be given an option of living on their own with other people who would end

up in nursing homes in groups of 3 to 5 with a person who would take care of them. People should

be more informed about what they are getting themselves into when they are sent to a nursing

home. For people who are in nursing homes and have an issue, often they have to sit quiet and deal

with the issue because they don’t have a person they can go to. People in nursing homes should be

able to contact a lawyer if there is something done that is illegally.

Improvement on nursing homes can be done as well to make people’s lives there better if

they cannot be given an option of living on their own or in groups. Nursing homes should give the

people who live there more freedom so that people don’t have to go to sleep at specific times and so

that people can go outdoors whenever they want as well. I think nursing homes also need a better

plan for serving meals to those in nursing homes with more nutritious food and food that is prepared

with care. For the people who live in nursing homes people should be given a better environment

and atmosphere and this can be done by having a building that is appealing both on the inside and

out. The building can have a nice outdoor courtyard with a garden for those who like to spend time

outside. Improvement in environment in nursing homes can also be improved by making many

events for the people to attend throughout the day and make life better socially for the people who

live there. Nursing homes should be improved to let more light into the building to give a more

positive atmosphere and the odors should also be diminished by better cleaning staff.