A Common Fear

Judith Jacovitz is not alone in dreading a one-way trip to a nursing home.

Experts say it is common and likely to grow as the population ages.

A study at the University of Washington found that among people studied over 70 who committed suicide and left indications of their reasons, the fear of being put into a nursing home was the one most often cited.

“There are a lot of people out there who are frightened,” Dr. J. Pierre Loebel, who directed the 1989 study, said. Of 60 elderly suicides in metropolitan Seattle in 1986, 18 gave reasons and eight specifically named the fear of nursing home placement.

Though small, the Seattle study is significant, according to a leading expert on nursing home suicides.

“One of the major concerns of older adults is their concern about going into a nursing home,” said the expert, Nancy Osgood, a Virginia Commonwealth University gerontologist.

Among people in nursing homes, suicide is far more common than officially reported, Osgood has found.

A national study she led several years ago counted suicide by starvation and rejection of medication, as well as overt forms. It found a true rate in long-term care institutions of 95 per 100,000. That is five times the rate of reported suicide among all elderly Americans, and six times the official rate in nursing homes.

The dread of losing freedom and dignity will spread as the population ages. The baby boom generation, 80 million strong, will begin turning 65 in 18 years. In the next four decades, the number of elderly Americans will more than double, from 30 million to 65 million.