I applaud the state's decision to toughen requirements for reporting child abuse. Tennessee's children should be protected from abuse. Tennessee's elderly should be protected from abuse as well.
One afternoon, I visited four residents of a nursing home who were in a hospital. In addition to other complications, all four women were dehydrated. Perhaps the other complications could not have been prevented, but dehydration could have been and should have been prevented.
Neglect is a form of abuse, which virtually never prompts a meaningful penalty for those who neglect nursing home residents.
Far too often there is no penalty.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, "If you prick them, do they not bleed?"
Nursing home residents in Tennessee should be afforded the same protection from abuse that children are afforded. When we fail to do so, we can't presume to wear the mantle of humanity.
Anyone who abuses a nursing home resident should receive the same punishment that people who abuse children receive. After all, people who live in nursing homes are God's children, too.
Jane Marshal
Dover, Tn.
Mjmarshall7@aol.com