social media

Over the last several months, states across the country have been contending with incidents of nursing home abuse that involve social media. Now, according to a recent report ABC 10 News San Diego, federal authorities are “stepping in to make sure elderly residents of nursing homes and senior care facilities are not abused on social media.” The investigation, according to an article from NPR, comes after ProPublica released a series of reports that showed nursing home employees taking “demeaning photographs and videos of residents and post[ing] them on social media.”

Will an investigation by federal health regulators actually be able to put a stop to this kind of elder abuse?

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Issues Memo Regarding Social Media Abuse

If you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home or assisted-living facility in the San Diego area, do you need to worry about whether abusive photos of your loved one will end up on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat? According to a recent article in The Washington Post, “posting abusive photos of the elderly on social media” has become an alarming trend in nursing home abuse cases. While most of us would like to believe that technology can only help seniors to have better lives, whether they are living independently or under the care of nursing home staff, the article should put Californians on alert to the emotional and psychological abuse that is happening at nursing homes across the country.

Dehumanizing Photos of Seniors and Emotional Abuse

As the article notes, advocates who work tirelessly to prevent nursing home abuse have identified a disturbing trend when it comes to elder abuse and social media: “nursing home workers across the country are posting embarrassing and dehumanizing photos of elderly residents on social media networks such a Snapchat, violating their privacy, dignity, and sometimes, the law.” Although many of these incidents are only now coming to light, the article intimates that numerous violations of patient privacy—that we know of—occurred back as far as 2012.