{"id":15951,"date":"2016-11-10T05:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=15951"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:33:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:33:55","slug":"sharing-not-caring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing Not Caring"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by\"shutterstock_374479450\" nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to protect the privacy of residents.<\/em><\/p>\n

At its best, social media strengthens human connection and makes the world feel a little bit friendlier. Unfortunately, when used maliciously or thoughtlessly, social media can become a weapon wielded against the weak and voiceless. After a disturbing series of abusive and demeaning social media posts<\/a> by care providers at assisted living facilities throughout the U.S., the industry is stepping in to set up guidelines and enforce HIPPA regulations.<\/p>\n

In a statement to ProPublica, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said, \u201cNursing homes are obligated under the law to keep their residents free from abuse. Exploitation on social media is a form of abuse, and the agency memo makes that clear. We need to prevent it, and we need to punish it when it happens.”<\/p>\n

Right to Privacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

With cameras and video recordings readily available, more and more residents have become the subject of ridicule and exploitation. While some of the victims are aware of what\u2019s going on, just as many are caught in the throes of real pain and suffering \u2013 sometimes even death.<\/p>\n

Because of the egregious behavior by some nurses and staff members at assisted living facilities, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently outlined a set of standards aimed at protecting residents from the most severe of social media cruelties. In a memo about the issue<\/a>, CMS unequivocally establishes that \u201ceach resident has a right to be free from all times of abuse, including mental abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMental abuse includes, but is not limited to, abuse that is facilitated or caused by nursing home staff taking or using photographs or recording in any manner that would demean or humiliate resident(s),\u201d the memo reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cNursing homes must establish an environment that is as homelike as possible and includes a culture and environment that treats each resident with respect and dignity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instant Exposure<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to ProPublica, 47 instances of social media abuse have been reported in nursing homes and assisted living facilities since 2012. Combining details gleaned from court cases, news stories and government inspection reports, ProPublica reveals a horrifying list<\/a> of incidents, many of which have resulted in criminal charges.<\/p>\n

In an interview with USA Today<\/a> about an incident at his Iowa nursing home, Bishop Drumm president and chief executive Brian Farrell said publishing photos violates the home’s core values. ” Such behavior cannot and will not be tolerated\u2026.it also violates the human dignity of the resident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Personal-Professional Boundary<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a June 10, 2016, memo to its members, the American Health Care Association\/National Center for Assisted Living<\/a> sent out a set of social media guidelines for nursing care centers and assisted living communities. The trade group, which represents long-term care providers, acknowledged the ability of social media to be used effectively in healthcare for a variety of purposes. Nevertheless, the AHCA\/NCAL urged its members to take steps to protect resident privacy and uphold personal-professional boundaries.<\/p>\n

The memo includes a HIPAA compliance\/privacy checklist for employee training on appropriate social media use and sets out the steps for investigation of social media abuses and federal government enforcement of HIPAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it is extremely difficult for a care center to ensure that employees use social media appropriately 100 percent of the time,\u201d the memo\u2019s authors write, \u201cit is critical that providers develop and implement social media policies, adequately train employees and initiate internal investigations, as appropriate, whenever it is determined that there is a potential problem.”<\/p>\n

A Tricky Tightrope<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge for many senior living care providers involves balancing the positive aspects of social media against the possibility of abuse. Emmanuel Center for Nursing administrator Anthony Cooper perhaps sums it up best:<\/p>\n

“We have implemented a specific set of policies and procedures so as to capitalize on the benefits of social media while continuing to protect the privacy of our residents,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial Media is definitely here to stay and will continue to grow and change. It is an excellent vehicle for families to keep connected and can serve as an effective marketing tool. As long as agencies create a sufficient monitoring system it can have a more positive impact as opposed to negative.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":15957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2952,6],"tags":[1417,842,868,51],"class_list":["post-15951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senior-living","category-technology","tag-senior-care","tag-senior-living","tag-seniors","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sharing Not Caring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yardi Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-10T13:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T23:33:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cutright Elizabeth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cutright Elizabeth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/\",\"name\":\"Sharing Not Caring - Yardi Corporate Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-10T13:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T23:33:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/dba832121806bbec3d280d6cdde90b4d\"},\"description\":\"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sharing Not Caring\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Yardi Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/dba832121806bbec3d280d6cdde90b4d\",\"name\":\"Cutright Elizabeth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4016b5eabd512619820fc63946d01cd983acc211f98fbc559a890a5b4b27c559?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4016b5eabd512619820fc63946d01cd983acc211f98fbc559a890a5b4b27c559?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cutright Elizabeth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth Cutright is an award-winning writer and editor with over 20 years of experience in journalism, publishing and online content creation. A film school grad with a law degree from the University of San Diego, outside of work Elizabeth can usually be found in the pool, on a hiking trail, or sampling Santa Barbara\u2019s latest vintage.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth-cutright-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Yardi Blog","description":"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sharing Not Caring","og_description":"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/","og_site_name":"Yardi Blog","article_published_time":"2016-11-10T13:00:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-22T23:33:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cutright Elizabeth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cutright Elizabeth","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/","url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/","name":"Sharing Not Caring - Yardi Corporate Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg","datePublished":"2016-11-10T13:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:33:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/dba832121806bbec3d280d6cdde90b4d"},"description":"After a rash of inappropriate and unsettling photos and videos posted by nurses and staff, the senior living industry is stepping in to regulate social media abuses and protect the privacy of residents.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/sharing-not-caring\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sharing Not Caring"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/","name":"Yardi Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/dba832121806bbec3d280d6cdde90b4d","name":"Cutright Elizabeth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4016b5eabd512619820fc63946d01cd983acc211f98fbc559a890a5b4b27c559?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4016b5eabd512619820fc63946d01cd983acc211f98fbc559a890a5b4b27c559?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cutright Elizabeth"},"description":"Elizabeth Cutright is an award-winning writer and editor with over 20 years of experience in journalism, publishing and online content creation. A film school grad with a law degree from the University of San Diego, outside of work Elizabeth can usually be found in the pool, on a hiking trail, or sampling Santa Barbara\u2019s latest vintage.","url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth-cutright-2\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/08\/shutterstock_374479450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27642,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951\/revisions\/27642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}