Ethics behind placing difficult children in nursing homes
Posted
August 20, 2007 at
1:31 pm by
Jessica
This week’s People Magazine features a story of a diagnosed autistic boy, 12, that was killed after being tied down and abused by nursing home aides. Apparently he was put into the nursing home after a series of violent outbursts at home and trying to choke his little brother. Shortly before his death, he was heard talking to his sister about cartoons and telling his mother that he loved her.
People magazine also writes of a 13-year-old boy, also diagnosed autistic and also killed by a nursing home aide. After restraining the boy in a car because of unruly behavior, the aide went about, doing his errands and returned to the boy, who was dead upon discovery. The parents institutionalized”him because they were still unable to potty train him at 13 years old and he was continually throwing temper tantrums, much like a toddler would.
Admittedly, it’s extremely difficult for me to remain neutral on this subject as I am the mother of an extremely high functioning Asperger child, but I have to believe there must be more to these children being warehoused in nursing homes than People Magazine’s explanation.
My fear is that autism has been the soup de jour diagnosis in order to give parents and children social services and is so commonly diagnosed that we may be missing serious mental disorders in children by giving them a non-specific medical diagnosis. Although there are degrees of autism — hence ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) — landing certain behaviors on the spectrum of autistic disorders, the child in the first example was clearly able to communicate in his nightly phone calls home and express emotions, which is uncharacteristic of autism. Autism is not strictly defined by violent outbursts, as is the reason for this child’s “prison sentence” to a nursing home.
The second child, 13, might have been autistic, but I have to ask, is the lack of being able to potty train and acting like a 2-year old, reason enough to be institutionalized? Although it is difficult to put yourself in that situation and I’m sure most parents would like to think that they wouldn’t institutionalize their children for being difficult and unable to potty train, it still leaves me questioning, are nursing homes the new mental institutions?
What are the requirements in putting a child into a nursing home?? Why aren’t we giving parents the tools in order to facilitate treatment with psychotherapy, various behavioral therapy and/or medications? Are nursing homes really the answer to undesirable behaviors?
Has this become America’s dirty little secret? Typically nursing homes only require the ability to pay them in order to accept a resident, but children should be given more consideration, no? In this day and age, why are we warehousing kids in nursing homes, especially homes that are more qualified to take care of ailing elderly people than children. Why are parents allowing this?
Tags: ASD, aspergers, Autism, institutions, nursing-homes, Social Issues |
4 Responses to “Ethics behind placing difficult children in nursing homes”
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1. Petulant Pixie
August 21, 2007 @ 9:32 am
I don’t understand it. Surely there are programs more appropriate for kids/young adults than nursing homes. I didn’t read the whole article, is this happening in anti-social service places like Texas?
In Ohio, there are group homes specially designed for kids/teens/young adults/adults with autism. They vary in accomidation and supervision with age and functioning level. I can’t imagine putting anyone not elderly in a nursing home. This reveals a huge need in these areas to upgrade their services.
2. Jessica
August 21, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
[quote comment="105047"]In Ohio, there are group homes specially designed for kids/teens/young adults/adults with autism. They vary in accomidation and supervision with age and functioning level.[/quote]
…but why would you even need one of those homes for most of the autistic children/adults who are mid to high functioning? The majority of autistic people are somewhere along the spectrum. Only a small percentage are extreme and unable to function.
3. Petulant Pixie
August 21, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
Obviously, they’re only there for people who do need them. When I was a social worker (back in the day, lol…) the goal was always to have people live in the most normalized enviornment possible. If they could function independently or with minimal services (people to come in every couple of weeks and help keep finances in order or whatnot) then that’s what was done. For some kids, because of behavioral issues, they could not live at home. For some young adults, they preferred to live in a group home setting rather than live at home with their parents. They couldn’t live independently (some maybe could later on, some would maybe always need a group setting), but the stigma of being 20ish and still living with mom-n-pop was too horrifying, so they wanted to live with people of a similar age and functioning level and have the security of a trained staff on duty (for driving, medical issues, shopping, safety).
In Texas, sadly, I had an 11 year-old boy with CP placed into the adult day care I worked for during the summer. The child had well above normal intelligence, but was wheelchair bound and had some speech issues. The ONLY service available to him while his mother was at work was for him to be placed in this facility, which was geared towards people with alzhiemers and parkinson’s and needed a supervised setting while their spouses (or adult children or other regular caregivers) were at work. They weren’t ready yet for a nursing home, but that was the next step. They really did love it that this child was there every day all through the summer (and after school for a couple of hours during the school year), but for HIM it was tragic. He was a good sport and liked the old people, but I just thought it was a crime that there was no better placement for him.
4. toopersonal
April 4, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I know someone who has a child with this disorder and she gave him to the State of California I believe when he was 4 or 5. He is now 14 and is living in a group home with troubled teens. He is fully capable, highly intelligent and does not understand why he is cannot be at home. The mother says she could not handle his outbursts and that he tried to harm his younger brother. Apparanlty on one occasion he tried to push him into the road and another time he took him into a tool shed with sharp objects. My question is ofcourse why weren’t the parents supervising. The problem here is that the grandparent’s would have taken custody of this boy except his mother refuses to take responsibility. She had two other sons, one who was given up to adoption and one who was left to be raised by his father. This child is being punished because his mother is a bad parent not because he needs to be in this institution and why should the state foot the bill? I think it’s neglect and she should be criminally punished.