Denied for old crimes: The complex challenge of long-term care for America’s aging sex offenders
As a case manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stephanie Jerstad once had a client die in transitional housing after being rejected by 212 different nursing homes in Illinois and Indiana.
None of them would take the man because he was on a sexual offender registry for a long-ago offense. Admission was repeatedly denied despite professional evaluations of his appropriate behavior during a preceding hospital stay of more than 30 days. He also needed so much assistance with daily activities that he would have been physically incapable of assaulting anyone, Jerstad said.
As thousands of Americans are added to registries each year and more of them age into needing long-term care, patients and providers are left to wade through an increasingly complex healthcare access issue without much formal guidance.
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FAC- why did you remove my post? Isn’t this supposed to be a place to talk about experiences regarding this topic. Or you only allow people like Cherokee Jack to constantly post stories, that to me, sound like fairy tales. I posted my experience and was looking for feedback also. Just like Cherokee Jack does every day and every topic. Maybe I’m not on the registry, but it affects my life greatly. And maybe I don’t want to go into details completely about it and that is ALSO MY RIGHT. What you’re doing is discrimination actually.
Gianni
Because it violated our code of conduct. The member you complain about also has had lots of posts removed.
Gianni
I have never seen you on here before but I can confirm, just this year I have had over 50 of my posts removed. But glad it is not just me they are removing posts.
Dont think for a second Cherokee is their favorite poster LOL I get sent to commenter jail on a weekly basis.
See, this is an example of a comment that should be removed. This post is about long term care for aging registrants. If someone looking for information on this topic clicks on this post and finds a bunch of useless commentary it detracts from the focus and utiity of this site.
Gianni
How does the registry affect your life greatly if you or a family member is not on the registry? For those of who are, we understand how it affects our families. Mostly from exclusion, intimidation and harassment practices.
it’s not a bug of the system it’s a system design. A large part of Americas war for independence from Britain was fought to escape the injustice of the “kings law”.. “kings law” is a British system of convoluted codes concepts and over lapping laws that were designed to make a mockery of justice locking the common man out of a fair result and providing entertainment for the elite and powerful.. the apple hasn’t fallen far from it’s tree.. Notice how well insulated the Epstein Island Elites are from justice while the common man is tried under foot? do you honestly not believe many of the names of the Epstein clients aren’t the same as those that are writing and have wrote the registry codes for the common man?
This article should be sent to every lawmaker in Florida.
DG, agree. Please volunteer for the Media Committee or Legislative so we have the manpower to get all these things done.
I have been abused 3 times while on the registry. 3 different doctors took advantage of me and got away with it.
In Florida, Adult Protective Services notifies nursing homes about potential residents who are on the state’s sex offender registry, and facilities can use the registry as a screening tool. Must be safe
So what about the number of employees who have sexually assaulted residents at long term and assisted living facilities. Obviously not on the registry, so it’s a failure to protect people who need it. All in all its fearmongering.
Vwj
I work in nursing facility and in. My past 15 years, never came across staff assaulting anybody.
Anecdote isn’t data—and the data are clear:
• GAO: Abuse citations in U.S. nursing homes more than doubled from 430 (2013) to 875 (2017). In a representative review of abuse cases, staff were more often the perpetrators than residents.
• HHS OIG (SNFs): Among Medicare residents sent to ERs in 2016 with “high-risk” injury codes, an estimated one in five cases involved potential abuse or neglect—and many were not reported as required.
• HHS OIG (all Medicare settings, 2019–2020): 30,258 claims flagged potential abuse/neglect; OIG estimates ~2,320 incidents were perpetrated by health-care workers, ~3,546 occurred in medical facilities (including nursing homes and assisted living), and ~7,298 were not reported to law enforcement. Underreporting is systemic.
• Ombudsman complaint data (national): An average of 11,749 abuse/neglect complaints per year in nursing homes (2006–2013), about 5.6 per 1,000 beds; the single most frequent category was physical abuse by a non-resident (i.e., staff), at ~28% of abuse/neglect complaints.
• Assisted living and nursing homes (Texas): Analysis of 140,497 complaints across 3,171 facilities found verbal/psychological abuse most common and sexual abuse least common—present in both settings. Staff were the focus of most abuse/neglect cases tracked by Ombudsmen.
• Global context: In institutional settings, about 64.2% of staff self-report perpetrating some form of abuse (most often psychological or neglect) in the past year—another signal that incidents are vastly underreported.
Boom! Mic drop
I’m a decorated and disabled US Army combat veteran and am on the registry for something that I did over 30 years ago. A misdemeanor. Laws kept changing, my crime didn’t. So, at 57, it’s good to see what will happen to me later in life. /s
I’m not sure I would want to be in a nursing home being on the registry. You get the wrong jackass that works there it has some kind of vendetta or know someone who had crimes perpetrated against them and then they decide to take it out on you when you are at your most helpless. Screw that.
Ben
I had that happen to me at a hospital. The nurse tried to pull out my catheter without the release valve so it would permanently injure me. I hit the alarm button next to my bed, and she ran out. When I told the other nurse what happened, she put a guard at my door but nothing else was ever done. I spoke with three different attorneys and none of them would take my case of negligence since they all said the damage was not severe enough.
I now try to avoid doctors altogether other than my primary Medicare doctor.
If everyone on the registry would give just one example of something bad that was done to them while on the registry, we would have almost a million stories to tell. Sadly, none of them good.
Yea i had a doctor implant a spinal cord stimulator paddle in the top of my spine incorrectly and then for an entire year refused anything was wrong, told me being shocked in not friendly places was normal to then tell me to stop coming to his office. So had to find another doctor. Weeks maybe a mo th upto the surgery he kept asking out loud, I wonder why the original doctor who did the emergency surgery stopped taking you as a patient. From the beginning till before surgery his attitude changed and I stopped actually seeing him and only a nurse. No lawyer will touch it and now the paddle can never be fixed or replaced and the device will stay in my body doing nothing for pain and cause issues. Plus I would have to worry about so called doctor justice for the future.
Robert
So sorry brother that, that has happened to you. Lots of people do not believe what has happened to us as registrants.
Wel some might believe it, but they also believe what they done to us is morally right or just because of the title they just dont care at all because we aren’t humans in their eyes