Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Drugged into Oblivion: The shocking Truth of How the Elderly are Treated

An elderly lady, pitifully frail, is seated in an armchair in the lounge of a care home, dozing fitfully.

Now just a little over six stone, she is a pale shadow of the vibrant woman she once was. What is going on inside her mind?

Is she lost in a dream of happier times, when she was young and full of life with an adored husband and young son - long ago days when it seemed impossible she would become old?

Or has this 85-year-old woman been doped up by the staff to keep her quiet, to make their lives easy - trapped in a perpetual state of confusion, destined to spend her final days in this twilight world of half-consciousness?

His mother told him she was being drugged and staff confirmed they were putting a sedative in her food.

"It is very convenient for staff at care homes to conceal drugs in the food and drink of residents, not for therapeutic problems but to make the residents easier to manage" he said.

Old people can be difficult and messy, and for many who work in care homes it is easier to dope them up and leave them to their own devices.
They receive no respect, their dignity is taken away from them, they are humiliated.

Only half of staff in care homes are required to be given training in caring for the elderly Most terrifying of all, they are given powerful sedatives which turn them into zombies and which experts say increase the chance of an early death.

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