My long time friend/college buddy is 55 years old and was once an avid photographer and scuba diver. He was involved in a bicycle accident, pretty much breaking many of the bones in his body. He had to wear a halo for about a year, and he now has to be fed through a tube. As such, he cannot take care of himself, and is a nursing home. He sometimes send me emails like this: "Hey Abner how is it going I am getting stronger each day I hope you can make the party next Saturday on the 23rd the nursing homes are a experience The one guy who I am room mates with in his 50 is dying from cancer it is sad hard at times for me the other room mate is 94 there are lots of issue people are not aware that take place in the nursing homes call or text Rita XXX XXX XXXX take care keep the faith" This statement concerns me: "there are lots of issue people are not aware that take place in the nursing homes" He sometimes makes cryptic comments like these, but when I ask him what is going on, he says "we can discuss it in person" almost like he is afraid to go in to detail over the internet. They give him very short access to a computer at the nursing home, and it makes me wonder if they watch what he is writing or something. He once made a general comment that "they make life a living hell". The nursing home is about two hours away, so it is kind of hard for me to find time to go visit him. From his statements, I suspect some kind of abuse and it worries me. I will speak to his only survivor, his sister about this. If it is abuse, what the heck do you do? Is there some kind of agency you can report these things to? Will Medicare be willing to switch him to another nursing home? or is it going to become a huge nightmare? Obviously, he is on SSDI, so his options are VERY limited. Oh boy.
You, or someone, should consider making the trip and speaking with him in person and in private. I would think--but I don't know this for sure--he has a case manager that arranged this. That would be the person to whom concerns would be directed. But you have to know what they are first.