:: Money, not race, is at the heart of nursing-home issues
As a registered nurse working in rural and urban areas of Georgia, I would like to comment on the article "Nursing-home industry still segregated, new report says" (Life, Sept. 12).
The reason for the differences in the levels of care provided to the elderly is mostly financial. Elderly residents are placed in nursing homes based on their Social Security and retirement incomes.
Finances, rather than race, determine the wide diversity in retirement living arrangements in the USA.
An elderly person who has to pay for rent, groceries, utilities and home care cannot live on the minuscule amount from Social Security. It certainly won't pay for expensive retirement homes.
I have seen time and again patients who have come into the Intensive Care Unit because they could not afford the medication they needed for their heart and blood pressure. I have watched patients go into a nursing home with a broken hip because they could not afford any other type of care. Their children are grown and sometimes are elderly and cannot physically or financially help.
In the future, I would like to see your articles take money into account when writing about our elderly.
