WRINKLE CITY

Documentary

STATUS: In Production

“When I was in primary school, every year they made us kids take a trip to the nursing home to spend time with the seniors. We used to call it “going to wrinkle city.” Everyone of those old people at the home seemed sad or angry or stoned. I’m not sure what the purpose of those field trips was, but as a kid, I knew one thing, I never wanted to have to live at wrinkle city.

Now that I do, its so much worse than I could have ever imagined.” - William

“We trusted him. The man came into my mother’s home, held her hand, and promised that his company would take care of her. Completely unbeknownst to us, the woman that he sent to stay in my 93 year old mother’s home to care for her had recently been in jail for theft and assault. Less than a week after the woman started “caring” for my mother, she robbed my mother. She beat my mother. My mother had to go into an advanced care nursing home and never really recovered. The man who turned out to be running an unlicensed home health care agency that had no insurance, still tried to bill us. - Miriam

Last year, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and home health care companies spent a combined $100 Million on advertising to court the ageing population and their families.

With the promise of resort style living, state-of-the-art medical facilities, and compassionate, well-trained nursing staff to tend to every need and desire, if you believe the advertisements, it seems that we are in the Golden Age of elder care.

But, despite the TV, print, and internet ads showing happy, healthy, oldsters, being cared for by smiling, empathetic nurses, all is not as the ads would portray in “wrinkle city.”

Rampant elder abuse, neglect, mismedication, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, unlicensed and uninsured facilities and agencies, and the abuse of a largely under-educated, overworked, and often undocumented work force has left patients and their caretakers vulnerable and victimized.

Examining agencies and facilities spread across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania and speaking to care workers, patients and their families, politicians, and both elder and employment advocates, “Wrinkle City” focuses on the reality for millions of Americans, both patients and care staff, who find themselves at the mercy of either the shady, fly-by-night home health care agencies or the corporate, assembly-line, senior “warehouses.”

If you are a care provider or a resident or the family member of a resident of a nursing home/assisted living facility or a home health care company, we want to talk to you about your experiences, good and bad. We are currently investigating two national nursing home/assisted living facility chains, four private nursing homes, and two home health care companies with extensive claims of abuse and/or fraud as well as licensing compliance issues, lack of insurance, and misleading advertising claims.