Dementia Sex and the City Nursing Home

Oy. When we think about nursing homes we think of many things, often pretty sad things, but "dementia sufferers sexually abusing each other as staffers turned a collective blind eye" is not usually the first thing that comes to mind. Or the even the twelfth.

But that seems to be exactly what was happening at the Marcus Garvey Nursing Home(right) in Brooklyn according to charges by the Department of Health and Human Services :

One nurse, the Department of Health says, witnessed but failed to report the rape of a diabetic woman, 65, by a man, 77.

Investigators say the nurse walked in as the woman yelled, "Get off me! Stop it! You're hurting my chest!" - but just told her to get dressed and leave the room.

In another instance, a senile 83-year-old prone to "sexually inappropriate behavior" was caught molesting a 66-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer - yet the day-room staff did nothing to intervene.

The DoHHS has issued a $4,050-a-day fine and "vowed to cut off Medicare and Medicaid payments" and finally shut the home down if its administratotrs can't prove that its staff is properlly qualified to be running such a home and that such incidents will be stopped in the future. But if the charges being leveyed against it are true (standard innocent till proven guilty caveats go here), that's going to be pretty tricky to prove!