Welcome to The City of Los Altos Hills’ website for elder abuse and neglect attorney, Ben Yeroushalmi. Here at Yeroushalmi Law, we are dedicated to protecting the rights of the elderly, especially those who are in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Older adults in these types of facilities are especially vulnerable to adverse outcomes due to poor care provided by facility staff.
Los Altos Hills is an affluent and beautiful area located in Santa Clara County. It is known as one of the wealthiest towns in the United States and was included in Forbes’ 2014 list of America’s most expensive places to live. The population of the city was 7,922, according to the 2010 United States Census. There are 32 assisted living facilities and 4 nursing homes near Los Altos Hills.
Sleep deprivation is never a pleasant experience and is especially a problem when one’s lifestyle or environment keeps it on-going. Nursing home and assisted living facility residents are often plagued by sleep deprivation due to disturbances such as inconsistent sleep duration and habitual sleep fragmentation. Initiating and maintaining sleep, as well as early morning awakening, are the most common sleep disturbance complaints among older adult residents. Many residents’ lifestyles are sedentary, consisting of monotonous daily routines, little physical exercise, and unfavorable sleep habits, such as spending excessive time in bed and sleeping during inappropriate hours of the day. This type of lifestyle is even more common among residents bound to wheelchairs, who make up 50% of nursing home resident populations.
Wheelchairs greatly obstruct the performance of physical activity, often exacerbating the risk of further disability and mortality among older individuals. Sustained inactivity diminishes quality of life by promoting tiredness, fatigue, depression, increased anxiety, irritability, mood disturbances, and inability to perform daily activities. Depression is a serious symptom and affects 81.8% of nursing home residents.
Fortunately, exercise has long been proven to be a simple solution for better sleep. Older individuals who performed daily physical activity slept for longer periods of time, had better quality of sleep, and experienced less rapid eye movement sleep duration than inactive individuals. Aerobic exercise is proven to prevent the onset of clinical depression and anxiety as well as improve psychological well-being. Group, rather than individual, exercises are especially beneficial, resulting in greater interest and willingness to participate in exercise and enhanced emotional effects that result in greater social interaction and decreased depression.
Resistance training has been shown to improve muscular strength and is vital in delaying muscle deterioration, which is a serious issue for aging individuals. Elastic band exercises are a form of resistance training and are universally used for rehabilitation and health enhancement purposes.
A study examined sleep quality and depression of wheelchair-bound nursing home residents after 6 months of doing regular elastic band exercises. These participants not only experienced increased muscle strength, flexibility, and hip and knee extension, they also improved in sit-to-stand movement, functional ability, and range of joint motion. Moreover, their skills in balance and gait were enhanced.
After four weeks of elastic band exercises, participants showed many psychological benefits, as well. They not only had better sleep, they also reported feeling more lively and energetic. However, sleep disturbances and quality of sleep significantly worsened for the control group participants (those that did not participate in the exercises) after six months of observation. The high attendance rate of the participants in the experimental group reflected their enjoyment of performing the exercises, as well as the opportunity for social interaction that the intervention provided.
Due to its cost-effectiveness and practicality, resistance bands play a significant role in physical activity programs designed for residents with mobility issues. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities should incorporate regular resistance band exercises into their group exercise programs for residents in wheelchairs to improve or maintain proper mental and physical health. Recruited volunteers can learn and lead the groups as they perform these exercises.
If you or someone you care about has been abused or neglected in a long-term care facility, contact our office today. We believe older adults are entitled to receiving the best quality of care and staff should be held responsible for failing to provide proper care at all times.