Why are Nursing Homes Drugging Dementia Patients Without Their Consent?

According to government data, nursing homes are still giving dementia patients medication to treat schizophrenia, mostly for its sedative purposes rather than to treat the disease. The usage has gone down from 1 in 4 nursing homes in 2012 to 1 in 6 nursing homes in 2018, but the truth of the matter is that these facilities are still administrating an improper drug, often without a necessary diagnosis or the patient’s consent.

Why? The reasons include, “misperception by nursing home staff that the medications can help people with dementia; a lack of awareness of their dangers, despite the black box warnings; lack of training in dementia care; and, perhaps most significant, to compensate for understaffing. Nursing homes have been exaggerating levels of nursing and caretaking staff for years, according to an analysis of federal data by Kaiser Health News.”

See Hannah Flam, Why are Nursing Homes Drugging Dementia Patients Without Their Consent?, Washington Post, August 10, 2018.

Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.