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CHESTERTOWN----June Maxam and The North Country Gazette have received word that they have been nominated for the Jack Newfield Award For Excellence in Investigative Reporting for a special report published last October entitled "Eden Park Nursing Home-Immediate Corrections Needed".
The article highlighted issues of abuse, short staffing, health and safety hazards at the Eden Park facility at 170 Warren St., Glens Falls, and advocated the installation of surveillance cameras at nursing homes.
The award was established last year by the Friends & Relatives of Institutionalized Aged Inc., of New York City (FRIA) in honor of Newfield, a well-known investigative reporter. www.fria.org
The goal of the award is to encourage social conscious journalism such as was embraced by Newfield, on the challenges of elderly life in general and especially those related to long term care.
The award is named in recognition of the critical reporting and journalistic high standards that Jack Newfield demonstrated in his reporting on nursing home conditions and other issues of social justice he called to the public's attention. It further recognizes the importance of courageous reporting that challenges the status quo of institutions.
With the burgeoning aging population and with society inadequately protecting the health and well-being of the frail elderly today, this award promises to encourage public attention and discussion about how we can provide a more dignified, caring and independent life for older seniors, FRIA says.
Last year's award winners were Heidi Evans and Joyce Shelby of the New York Daily News for their hard-hitting series on two long term care facilities in Brooklyn and the systemic problems they reflected.
The award will be presented at FRIA's annual dinner scheduled for June 4 in New York City.
A corporation known as Eden Park Health Services Inc. based in Albany owns and operates several Eden Park facilities throughout New York State including those in Glens Falls, Utica, Poughkeepsie, Catskill and Cobleskill.
The Eden Park facilities in Cobleskill and Utica are both on the National Nursing Home Watch List for causing immediate harm to a patient or subjecting patients to immediate jeopardy.
The inspection reports for the Glens Falls facility show a pattern of mistreatment, lack of quality care, resident rights deficiencies and pharmacy deficiencies. In 2002, the facility was found to have improperly restrained residents, denied them their right to choose activities, failed to meet their nutritional needs and didn't keep drugs properly stored.
Inspection Results: EDEN PARK HEALTH CARE CENTRE INC GLENS FALLS
The latest inspection report of Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls, reporting an inspection of October 2005, a standard federal survey, indicates that the corrections were shown as being needed in dietary services; that significant corrections were needed in the quality of care and that corrections were needed in providing residents rights.
The state's overall rating for the Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls was that "significant corrections were needed", just one step below the "immediate jeopardy" rating. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/102906EdenParkCorrections.html 2-22-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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