Long Term Care Insurance Association Director Addresses Nursing Home Drug Abuse

December 8, 2014, Los Angeles, CA – According to reports and a recent lawsuit as many as one in five nursing home patients are given antipsychotic drugs that are not only unnecessary but can also be extremely harmful for older patients.

“Anyone who has visited a skilled nursing home facility quickly realizes what a difficult job those working there face,” explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI).  “That said, the reports are extremely concerning and a reason more consumers will want the means and option to be cared for in their own home.”

Reports have stipulated that patients in the nation’s 15,500 nursing homes are given antipsychotic drugs used as chemical restraints especially for those patients suffering from dementia.   These drugs are intended for people with severe mental illness.

“According to a report aired today by NPR, some 300,000 nursing home residents are currently receiving antipsychotic drugs,” Slome adds.  “The report indicates they are administered to suppress the anxiety or aggression associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.”

“Consumers continue to associate long-term care insurance with nursing home care,” Slome advised a group of long term care insurance specialists this morning.
“The industry keeps strengthening that association with many reports citing costs.  Instead, we should be focusing on the fact that long term care insurance pays for home care services which is what patients want and can provide a greater degree of control over situations like this.”

Slome urged the agents to focus on the fact that just over half of all new long term care insurance claims begin and end paying for home care services.  “Until you break the cycle of connecting your product with something people don’t want and now have an even greater reason to view it negatively, you won’t see consumers view this protection positively,” Slome admonished.

To learn more about how long term care insurance can pay for quality home care services, call the Association at 818-597-3227 or visit their website at www.aaltci.org.

 

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