Description

As the baby boom generation enters retirement age, greater numbers of people eventually will enter nursing homes. Portraying people who have lived in worked in long-term facilities, and family members struggling with nursing home issues, Elder Care Catastrophe reveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. It is the only book on nursing homes to use systematic research and sociological theory to understand different types of nursing home maltreatment. The book provides critical information to any lay person, nursing home employee, policymaker, student or researcher concerned with elder care issues, and offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes.

Author Info

Jason S. Ulsperger, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arkansas Tech University, has been a volunteer in nursing homes throughout the southern United States. He is the author of multiple articles on nursing home law, elder abuse, and nursing home reform.

J. David Knottnerus is Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. He recently coauthored Elder Care Catastrophe: Rituals of Abuse in Nursing Homes (Paradigm 2010).

Reviews

“This moving and beautifully written book should be read by all students interested in aging, by nursing home staff who care for the elderly, by policymakers interested in real reform, and by anyone with a family member who resides in a nursing home. The authors expose the abuse and neglect vulnerable nursing home residents experience on a daily basis. Their book provides a riveting account of how complex rules and regulations resulting from demands for elder care reform have had the unintended consequence of reducing the quality of care.”
—Jill Quadagno, Florida State University, and author of One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance