Sexual predators in nursing homes aimed at identifying dangers to residents

Newswise — Donna Cohen, professor and researcher at the University of South Florida’s Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, has received a grant from AARP in Washington, D.C. to study the presence of potentially violent and dangerous residents, including sexual predators, living in the nation’s nursing homes.

“Too little is known about potentially dangerous residents in long term care facilities,” said Cohen, an internationally known expert on dangerous and violent behaviors in the elderly, including murder-suicide. “Registered as well as unregistered sex offenders and persons with criminal records are entering long term care, putting at risk some of our most vulnerable citizens.”

The AARP study contract comes on the heels of a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in March 2006 that identified “about 700 sex offenders” living in U.S. nursing homes in 2005 (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06326.pdf). In addition, the report found that long term care facility administrators also worried about potential violence from residents who were mentally ill or cognitively impaired.

“There is an urgent need for research on the prevalence, risk factors and patterns of violence as well as the characteristics of perpetrators,” explained Cohen, who has served on many national scientific and technical advisory boards and often testifies before Congress on issues involving elders and violence. “Long term care administrators not only need to develop ways to identify potentially violent or predatory residents, but also need to develop policies and procedures for dealing with them.”

Cohen pointed to data gathered by the organization A Perfect Cause (http://www.APerfectCause.org), published in 2005, that found the number of registered sex offenders living in the nation’s nursing homes had more than doubled between 2004 and 2005. These data triggered Congressional hearings in Washington that lead to the request for a GAO investigation.

Cohen noted that the GAO study found that long term care facilities do not routinely impose different supervision or separation requirements on residents who are known offenders or who have prior convictions. Often, prior convictions are not known. Moreover, only four states have laws that specify that long term care facilities must be notified when registered sex offenders become residents. In May 2006, Illinois became the first state to require criminal background checks on all current and incoming nursing home residents.

“Our nearly three million elders living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are among our most vulnerable citizens,” concluded Cohen. “It is our hope that this study will not only emphasize the urgent need for awareness of the issue but will also encourage states and care facility administrators to engage their resources to protect the vulnerable.”

The University of South Florida is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. USF received more than $287 million in research contracts and grants last year, and it is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation’s fastest growing universities in terms of federal research and development expenditures. The university has a $1.3 billion annual budget and serves nearly 43,250 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota/Manatee and Lakeland. In 2005, USF entered the Big East athletic conference.