Elder Abuse in Skilled Nursing Facilities: A Qualitative Study with Ombudsmen from Fresno, Madera, and Merced Counties

The following thesis is a research study that aimed to find measures on how to both combat and prevent elder abuse and neglect in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Elder abuse and neglect are currently becoming a worldwide issue that the World Health Organization has currently recognized as a health crisis. The United States has contributed to the problem of elder abuse with continuing the discriminatory act of Ageism that formed during the industrial revolution. The United States has tried to combat this social justice issue with the passing of the Older Americans Act in the 1960s, which formed the Agency on Aging, which created Long-Term Care Ombudsmen program. The Ombudsmen are advocates that represent the residents of SNFs. The literature proved that even with procedures in place, elder abuse and neglect continues in the United States. In order to better understand how to combat and how to prevent elder abuse and neglect in the central San Joaquin Valley, the researcher conducted a qualitative study with a with five Ombudsmen from Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties. Using grounded theory, relevant themes were extracted, and yielded suggestions of why abuse exists in SNFs, how to combat elder abuse and neglect and how to prevent it in the SNFs in this region of California. This thesis will show that these themes extracted pertaining to the cause of elder abuse in SNFs are directly related to social work ethics, and the suggestions on how to prevent the continuing, in addition, relate to the social work values of service and human relationships.