It’s said that it has to come to this. We have blogged before about the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in MN and the abuse suffered by residents at the hands of seemingly wholesome teenagers. Now the 15 families of the alleged abuse victims have formed an official support group called Families Against Nursing Home Abuse. It is is giving them a chance to talk of their experiences with others who could have potentially gone through the same experiences.

I hope that the nursing home involved is supporting this and doing everything in their power to be transparent during this tough time.

But there is more to this and it really comes down to some basics that I harp on all the time. Basic respect and dignity for our elders. It needs to start at home and society needs to enable it by embracing inter-generational programs that bring people together. We don’t want to talk about getting old in this society and we need to. I fully embrace the concept of youth and vitality and clearly see the sands shifting with a new president to a youth oriented culture. But folks we have some very youthful older folks that need our love and attention. Seems as soon as they retire from a profession we write them off as retired from life.