Cathy Greway made the torturous decision about a year ago to place her husband, Gerald “Jerry” Propp, into an assisted living facility.
She had been caring for her husband of more than 20 years on her own in their Golden home, a task becoming overwhelming as Jerry’s Alzheimer’s disease progressed.
Cathy looked at more than 20 places to find the right fit, searching for a facility that wasn’t too depressing, was clean and would provide assistance with her husband’s daily living.
“I just wanted to find the perfect place,” she said.
Of course, she couldn’t have predicted that 10 months later, her 76-year-old husband would be beaten to death while sleeping in his bed at the Atria Applewood assisted living facility.
Police say 87-year-old Homer Castor, who shared a room with Jerry divided by a wall with an opening, attacked Jerry in the early morning of Feb. 21.
Castor, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is under observation at the state mental hospital.
This unbearably tragic story for both families raises serious questions for the facility and for Colorado.
Did staffers take precautions to protect Jerry after an alleged attack by Castor 10 days earlier?
Should Castor have been in a facility that offered more care?
Were staffing levels adequate at the facility?
The incident is especially scary for people with loved ones in assisted living facilities, which are becoming the preferred choice for long-term care.
They are big businesses, charging residents thousands of dollars a month for a less demoralizing housing option than a nursing home, featuring home-like amenities with light medical care.
More than 750,000 Americans now live in assisted living facilities, according to a
In Colorado, 614 assisted living facilities are licensed with the state. The vast majority are doing exceptional work, caring for people who cannot be at home.
But with the growth, regulations haven’t kept up, said Shannon Gimbel, ombudsman program manager for the Area Agency on Aging.
“If you are in the business of caring for people, there are certain regulations you should abide by,” she said.
For example, assisted living facilities in Colorado aren’t required to have even one licensed nurse on staff. There are no mandated staff-patient ratios.
Administrators don’t need a license, a high-school diploma or GED. Patients have no recourse or appeal rights if they are kicked out.
Thankfully, the state has a robust ombudsman program. But it doesn’t cover the scores of unlicensed facilities that aren’t required to follow even the state’s paltry number of regulations.
The problems are growing.
study found one in five people in long-term care facilities had experienced resident-on-resident aggression over a four-week span. The report found few incidents were ever reported.
Cathy Greway said staff at Atria told her about her husband’s confrontation with Homer Castor a few weeks before that left marks on his neck, but she said they downplayed it.
Had she known the extent of the problem, she would have brought him home.
“None of us know,” she said. “I think you see signs. You just don’t think about it. That is a problem we all have. We try to trust other people.”
E-mail Jeremy Meyer at jpmeyer@ denverpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JPMeyerDPost
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