Risk Management Perspective
Policy/Procedure: All policies and procedures should be up-to-date, including weapons guidelines and assessing a resident’s physical and mental capacity.
Training: Physicians and staff will be trained to assess all residents at the time of admission and periodically throughout their stay to determine their physical and mental competency.
Audit: Determine that all residents are assessed at the time of admission and monitored for any changes. Noted changes need to be communicated to all staff.
A nurse who specializes in geriatric cases opened a discussion on gun-owning elders with dementia, depression, or other serious infirmities by showing a picture of an 87-year-old woman gripping a gun in both of her outstretched hands. She told a full classroom at a regional conference on aging that the woman in the picture is her mother. She weighs 105 pounds and lives in a gated community in Florida. “I cannot get my mother to give up her gun,”she said. The panel of experts with her, which included two Philadelphia police officers, did not have easy answers. “It can be even harder to get elderly parents to give up their weapons than their car keys,” they said. When possible, subterfuge may be the best option. “It’s tough to get somebody who cares about their firearms to give them up,” said a Philadelphia police officer in the gun permit unit. While Philadelphia has some extra rules surrounding gun ownership, “Pennsylvania is a gun-friendly state,” he said.
The subject of guns is important because advanced age raises the risk for both dementia and depression. Dementia can sometimes make people paranoid or unable to recognize caregivers or even close family members. Several years ago, a Philadelphia caregiver was shot by a longtime patient with dementia.
