Letter to the editor: Politicians should improve quality of nursing home care

It’s an election year, and the campaign ads are all over TV. It’s a fact that you don’t really know what is true or false, but that’s the way the political system works.

One of the problems I’ve seen is in a Kamala Harris ad; in one scene she states that she will ensure that seniors can retire with dignity, referring to Social Security and Medicare. I currently go to a nursing home five days a week to visit with a family member in the lockdown unit, and it’s a facility that has had a poor reputation for years. This facility would not have been my choice, but the hospital had to discharge her to the first nursing home with a vacancy due to her dementia. I’ve seen the problems she has had due to antipsychotics and injuries while there for almost a year, but it’s hard to find a decent nursing home.

With the elderly population in this country and the need for nursing home care, why not look into the quality of care issues at these places? Dignity is the last word I would use to describe what these seniors endure.

Ann Stanton

Baden