{"id":10165,"date":"2019-05-02T20:16:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T20:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10165"},"modified":"2019-05-02T20:16:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T20:16:49","slug":"calls-to-stop-barbaric-drugging-of-texas-nursing-home-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10165","title":{"rendered":"Calls to Stop \u201cBarbaric\u201d Drugging of Texas Nursing Home Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Antipsychotic medications can be dangerous for people with Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia. Photo: David Pereias\/Adobe Stock<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mary Schuermann Kuhlman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Texas has reduced the misuse of antipsychotics in nursing homes in recent years, but some advocacy groups say much more can be done.<\/p>\n

Amanda Fredriksen, associate state director at AARP Texas, explained about 12,000 nursing home residents are being given antipsychotic drugs for no legitimate reason, perhaps other than the convenience of staff in caring for patients who otherwise might be difficult. She said these medications are intended to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disease and Tourette\u2019s syndrome, but are dangerous for those with Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese drugs can increase the risk of falls, increase blood glucose levels, they dramatically increase the risk of stroke \u2013 all these risks are well known,\u201d Fredriksen said. \u201cWe outlawed physical restraints many, many years ago and now we\u2019ve moved to chemical restraints. It\u2019s fairly barbaric. \u201c<\/p>\n

Texas legislators are considering a pair of bills that would require the written consent of a patient or a family member before an antipsychotic drug is given to a nursing-home patient.\u00a0House Bill 2050<\/a>\u00a0was passed out of committee last week, and\u00a0Senate Bill 1212<\/a>\u00a0is expected to get a hearing in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Fredriksen said there\u2019s no dispute that providing daily care for those suffering from dementia is difficult. However, she noted there are other alternatives to antipsychotics, including music and memory therapies and safer medications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also behavior techniques that can be used to know how to anticipate some of the reactions from residents and intervene with different kinds of behavior techniques that don\u2019t require any drugs at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last session, the state passed legislation that required additional training for nursing-home staff. And Fredriksen contended written consent is the next move towards improving the quality of care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt added four additional hours of training for direct-care staff for people with Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia, and so that piece is there,\u201d she said. \u201cGetting that consent is really a modest step to protecting residents\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas nursing facilities<\/a>\u00a0reduced the unnecessary use of antipsychotics among residents by more than 56 percent between 2013 and 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mary Schuermann Kuhlman AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Texas has reduced the misuse of antipsychotics in nursing homes in recent years, but some advocacy groups say much more can be done. Amanda Fredriksen, associate state director at AARP Texas, explained about 12,000 nursing home residents are being given antipsychotic drugs for no legitimate reason, perhaps other than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10168,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions\/10168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}