Dutch residents being bullied

Researchers have found bullying in the school playground is just as common in Dutch nursing homes.

A small Dutch study of 180 residents of an average age of 86 has found that 20% of them are being bullied in their nursing home by other residents.

The Dutch Foundation for the Elderly told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that it’s high time similar measures used in school programs were introduced in homes for the elderly.

Although it’s a small-scale study, Jan Romme, director of the National Foundation for the Elderly, considers it a clear sign that there is a real problem.

“The emphasis of the bullying is actually isolating people. Talking badly about people, gossiping about people. It’s more a group process, in which they are left out.

“People get coffee – they don’t get coffee; people get cake when it’s someone’s birthday, they don’t get cake. They talk openly about that person, what’s wrong with that person, that they don’t like him or her. It’s not shoving or pulling someone’s hair or ears, it’s more psychological,” he said in the report.

With funding cuts becoming more common, homes are forced to do away with some social activities. Mr Romme believes this boredom is the major cause of the bullying. It creates an atmosphere in which gossip and bullying become commonplace.

“I don’t know if you’ve been in a Dutch elderly home lately, but the staff just have time to make up the beds, to give people their food. And while they are doing that, the bell has gone five times because another person needs them. There is no time to talk any more and certainly not to address this problem,” he said.

The National Foundation for the Elderly is now calling for a similar sort of document for care homes to that used in school anti-bullying programs that address the behaviour of both the bully and the bullied – teaching victims to be more assertive.

That approach won’t work well with the elderly, according to Mr Romme. Getting the elderly to change their ways is like “flogging a dead horse”, he says. So efforts need to be focused on changing the group mindset that leads to bullying.

But who will take responsibility for doing this, when care home are already overwhelmed?

“Usually family also notice that there’s something wrong with their father or mother. For instance if they become very silent that could mean that they are being bullied or even abused.

“Then it’s good that the children of those elderly people can talk to someone in confidence. This is absolutely essential that such a person is there and that that person can be found. It can’t happen that if you have a complaint, you can’t talk to a person quickly,” he said.

Mr Romme believes the problem can be addressed better by appointing a confidential adviser in every nursing home, suggesting the government cut the fat salaries paid to geriatric managers to meet the cost.