DEAF, BLIND, AND OUT OF THEIR MIND

The Population Reference Bureau predicts that aging Baby Boomers could cause a 75 percent increase in the number of Americans ages 65 and older requiring nursing home care, from 1.3 million in 2010 to an estimated 2.3 million in 2030. 

The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report this year revealing that reported incidents of resident abuse increased from 430 in 2013 to 875 in 2017. Underreporting is a problem in the field, and federal oversight is lacking.

The Office of the Inspector General estimated that of all nursing home residents treated at emergency rooms in 2016, one in five incidents were likely related to abuse or neglect. 

In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services developed a flagging tool in Nursing Home Compare, an online database where facilities are compared and rated, in which a red circle icon is placed alongside nursing facilities with recent incidents of neglect or abuse.

Nursing homes must meet standards to receive funds from Medicare and Medicaid, which spent more than $70 billion on nursing-home care in 2017.

TREND FORECAST: At the end of World War II, soldiers coming home from fighting deadly wars found it more enjoyable to create new life, thus the babies boomed.

Boomers going into nursing homes is a global megatrend that nations are not prepared for. 

Trendsetters in the healthcare business, individual or corporate, would be wise to seize the opportunity of developing programs and strategies for baby boomers not wishing to become inmates in nursing homes.

As Gerald Celente notes and lives by, “The older you get, the more you have to do. The less you do, the quicker you go.” What this means is that for aging Boomers to stay healthy and fit, they have to do more by improving their diets and increasing physical activity.