NURSING HOMES: Citizens Action Guide

Increasingly, the term ""nursing home"" seems an ironic misnomer after all the exposes in recent years--the books by Tulloch, Mendelson, Curtin, and Nader, the Moss report, the John Hess articles in the New York Times. Horn and Griesel, aware of the farce of federal reform efforts and the difficulty of local action, nevertheless take off from these indictments--and the attitudes toward aging they imply--and provide a ""tested strategy for change."" They favor a uniform standard for all nursing home facilities and an end to the grim pattern of fragmented responsibility and token inspections. Their suggestions for specific organizing techniques--interviewing patients, getting funds, educating the membership, doing power-structure research--are stated simply and directly, with precise instructions given for everything from conducting unannounced visits to lobbying and getting legislative support. An invaluable reference book which includes the names and addresses of citizen action groups all over the country, this also offers capsule histories of their most successful procedures. A booster shot for Gray Panther power.