If Carrie Bradshaw finds herself in a nursing home one day, what obligations will the nursing home have to oversee her sex life? The federal court of appeals in Chicago addressed that question recently, holding that skilled nursing facilities have an obligation to intervene when residents with dementia or Alzheimer's disease engage in sexual activity. One year-old resident suffered from dementia but functioned at a relatively high level. His care plan required staff to assess whether his behavior endangered other residents and to intervene as necessary. Another year-old male resident with Alzheimer's and dementia had significant cognitive impairments and had exhibited socially inappropriate behaviors, including asking staff to perform sex acts and inappropriately touching staff. The third resident, a year-old female who suffered from Alzheimer's, had low cognitive functioning and severe hearing impairment.
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Join AARP today. Get instant access to discounts, programs, services and the information you need to benefit every area of your life. A woman in Iowa complains when her roommate's husband, who doesn't live in the facility, climbs in his wife's bed to snuggle and, she claims, have sex. A man likes to fondle fellow residents in his Minnesota dementia-care unit; nobody assesses whether the women invite or welcome the touch or are being assaulted. As if moving aging parents into a long-term care facility wasn't painful enough, now comes this uncomfortable twist: getting calls about their sex lives there. Remember when roles were reversed when it came to fretting about sex drives?
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My father died in at 49 years old. Mom was a couple of years younger. She chose not to remarry. This left her in a bind. She liked to dance.
Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. The assisted living industry provides residential, medical, nutritional, functional, and social services for approximately 1 million older adults in the United States. Also presented are practical recommendations and policy implications for addressing the sexual and intimacy needs of current and future cohorts of assisted living residents. Data for this article were drawn from 3 National Institute on Aging—funded ethnographic studies conducted in 13 assisted living settings over 9 years. The assisted living industry, a form of long-term care primarily marketed to older populations, currently provides residential, medical, nutritional, functional, and social services for approximately 1 million older adults in the United States National Center for Assisted Living, Assisted living settings are unique in that they are not subject to the same federal rules and regulations that govern the operation of nursing homes in the United States.
