By JOHN BREAUX

Nearly all of us know a parent, friend or family member living in a nursing home. With nearly 18,000 licensed nursing facilities in the United States, including more than 360 in Louisiana, an estimated 1.6 million Americans receive care in nursing homes nationwide.

Although some form of nursing care for the elderly has always existed, the modern nursing home industry grew by leaps and bounds after World War II. Public money for construction of non-profit nursing homes encouraged expansion of the industry in the 1950s. The nursing home industry experienced a period of even more rapid growth after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in 1965.

As the nursing home population grew, certain problems facing these institutions emerged. Among these are physical and sexual abuse of residents – problems that still occur at unacceptable rates and raise the question of how abuse in nursing homes is being addressed.

Upon receiving complaints regarding law enforcement’s response to physical and sexual abuse in nursing homes, the Senate Aging Committee, which I chair, embarked upon an investigation into the differences in the response to crimes in and outside nursing homes in order to better recognize, prevent, investigate and prosecute these crimes.

Our 18-month investigation culminated in an Aging Committee hearing exposing some of the most shocking, gruesome and most devastating stories of abuse I have ever heard, including two individuals whose elderly mothers died as a result of severe physical abuse in nursing homes – one at the hand of a nursing home caretaker; the other at the hand of another resident.

The committee also heard from elder abuse experts and law enforcement officials addressing the need to better coordinate agencies responses to complaints of physical and sexual abuse in nursing homes. One of the witnesses, Sheriff Charles Fuselier of St. Martin Parish, detailed some of the impressive work taking place in our state aimed at better educating and training law enforcement officials to address elder crimes.

Our investigation and our hearing showed us that nursing home crimes are not reported, investigated or punished with the same severity as crimes outside nursing home walls. This lack of coordination among the varying agencies responsibile for responding to these crimes continues to be a major issue.

We need to better train law enforcement officials to address nursing home abuse, urge states to mandate all nursing home deaths go through the coroner’s office and implement other mechanisms to stop this disturbing trend in its tracks. All levels of government from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to state agencies to local sheriffs need to work together to ensure this occurs.

A crime is a crime whether in or outside of a nursing home and residents should not spend their days living in fear. These crimes, against some of the most vulnerable members of our society, are intolerable and law enforcement must improve its response.

To address these concerns, I am seeking funding to better train law enforcement officials and urging states to mandate that all nursing home deaths go through the coroner’s office. I am also requesting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issue a monthly report to our committee on its progress implementing the recommendations of a General Accounting Office report released at the hearing. Finally, I also support legislation to set up a national registry of nursing home workers to ensure that a person with a history of abuse in one state cannot be hired in any other state.

We in Congress must do all we can to protect seniors from these heinous crimes. As the nursing home population grows, I fear incidents like these will become more common unless we do more today to ensure quality of care for nursing home residents tomorrow.

JOHN BREAUX represents Louisiana in the United States Senate.