Why do we patronize super-expensive nursing homes that are cold and sterile?

Maybe it's because we don't think we have any choice.  With nursing home care costing $100,000-$150,000 per year, however, one would think that some of them at least could provide a warm and caring environment.

Here is a quotation from an interesting article in today's Washington Post:

"{To Bill Thomas, a geriatrician who is working to change American attitudes about old age, the promise [no nursing home] is a red herring. “It’s actually the only thing we know how to do because we don’t have the actual language to say what we’re really asking: ‘Promise me you’ll protect my dignity, promise you’ll protect my privacy, promise to make sure I don’t live in pain.’

“'Ironically the promise has led to significant amounts of abuse and neglect, because there’s a limit to what people can do.'

"It wouldn’t be necessary, he points out, if people demanded more from the nation’s nursing homes.

“'The nursing home industry has, ironically, benefited tremendously from the low expectations people have,” Thomas said. “They have successfully persuaded people that you’ve got no other choice — it’s got to be cold and sterile and rigid.'”

This is a matter that must be urgently addressed.  There are alternatives: A friend of mine, dissatisfied with the care in a New Hampshire nursing home, moved his mother to a luxury facility in Mexico that was not only cheaper but which provided a warm and loving environment in a resort hotel setting.  If that is possible in Mexico, why do our nursing homes resemble the ward in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Please click on the picture below to read the full article: