Why do nursing homes restrict who they can admit based on age?

Question

If there is a younger person who is desperate need of full-time care, why won't nursing homes admit that person? Why is age such an important consideration?

I appreciate your answer. I would not have asked the question if I hadn't had several people turn down my relative because of his age (early 40's). We are in the process of locating a place that will take him, but I am more interested in the reasoning BEHIND an age requirement.

Answer 1

What makes you think they don't? While they won't admit children for obvious reasons, I have had professional and personal reasons to be in many nursing homes and am aware of no restrictions on who nursing homes will admit except as it relates to whether they have the trained staff to handle the type of care the person needs, i.e., independent living, assisted living, full care, rehab, dementia, etc.

Hi...Thanks for the elaboration. I suspect it must be a combination of two factors...the kind of care your relative needs and perhaps the facility is getting subsidies from the government for caring for certain types of patients, i.e., Medicare, which would not apply to your relative.

Just guessing though...good luck to you.

Answer 2

I would think that having young men in with an elderly population would be a concern for some facilities. They would have a difficult time mixing with an age group of seniors and most facilities work very hard at getting everyone that can wheel around out of there rooms and into a common area for a lot of the daytime hours.

i would think a young man might be more concerning to a staff then a senior because, from my experience, they are more willing to hit the staff and it tends to be a fairly good slap when you get caught. Your young person may not be violent, or may not be violent toward family, but as an age group, I could see where a NH would be concerned. This also goes with some young men that need care and have MH/MR issues that can demonstrate preditory behaviors toward other residents, esp. the elderly woman, for inappropriate sexual/violent behavior. It can be a valid concern if the facility has had an issue in the past.

Is it possible for you to recontact the facilities that have declined to accept and ask for an appointment with the staff social worker, or start with the social worker when you apply. If they turn your young man down, would they be willing to do a facility search to see who in your area are accepting this age group? I think a good social worker could help quite a bit with this. There is also your doctors office and any goverment/insurence agency that is helping with support that may have search assistance for you.

Answer 3

Being in a nursing home is not the most fun place. If you have a relative that is 40ish most nursing homes don't want to add depression on top of whatever other problems they may have. The relative wouldn't enjoy hanging out with people a lot older than them with nothing in common. Good luck.