Before the 1900s elderly and sick people who couldn’t take care of themselves were taken care of by family members. In the early 1900’s elderly people started going to alms houses or otherwise known as poorhouses. America has always looked down upon the poor because America typically thinks poor are poor because they are lazy. Since the birth of America, America has always had a strong work ethic thanks to leader of Jamestown, John Smith’s “don’t work, don’t eat” moto. Therefore the alms house symbolized a dreaded Welfare type system and Americans weren’t willing to pay taxes or give money to help the poor or the ill who resided in them. “poorhouse, according to early twentieth-century social analyst Harry C. Evans, was “a word of hate and loathing, for it includes the composite horrors of poverty, disgrace, loneliness, humiliation, abandonment, and degradation (Epstein, p.218).” The majority of the elderly in alms houses were widowed women so it was no surprise when women and different religious …show more content…
The next year Congress passed regulations to improve the quality of nursing homes. However, Nursing homes didn’t correct their ways and enhance their care. In 1971 a department was created for Geriatrics and Extended Care to help the government oversee the standard quality of homes. Complaints could now be made about homes to the Geriatrics and Extended Care department. The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act was created in 1987 which created a standard of treatment for nursing homes all over the country. It said that those in nursing homes “be provided with services sufficient to attain and maintain his or her highest practicable physical, mental and psycho- social well- being.” It also said that nursing homes that fail to meet standards have to make immediate changes or they will lose their license to