Health | November 18, 2008 | 39 comments

Taboo lifts on sex in nursing homes

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081118/sc_livescience/tabooliftsonsexinnursinghomes

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Nursing-home residents have sexual needs too. And now researchers are finding ways to educate staff on the taboo topic and provide accommodations for the elderly to shack up under some privacy.


"Most staff have the same mindset many of us do, which is 'I don't want to think about my parents having sex, let alone my grandparents,'" Gayle Doll, who directs Kansas State University's Center on Aging, told LiveScience.


The researchers suggest educating staff about sexuality and making sex in nursing homes less hush-hush. In the long run, they hope federal guidelines will help all nursing homes deal with sexuality in a positive way, especially as baby boomers age and bring their 1950s and 1960s attitudes about sex with them to the facilities.
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39 comments // Taboo lifts on sex in nursing homes

  • Cup_O_Hurley
    • 0
      Cup_O_Hurley  

    • Taboo? Who says it has to be?! I worked in a home where a women harbored her toys and had male visitors. She was a proud woman. I see a certain amount of female liberation in it.

    • 2 years ago
  • Gargaryun
    • 0
      Gargaryun  

    • This isn't new...1 aspect the State of Kansas ISN'T backwards in is the LEGAL RIGHTS of Nursing Home Residents.
      Unless a Client/Patient/Resident has been legally declared to be Mentally Incompetent, and has a legal Guardian Who forbids it, The Client has the same right to privacy within Their life as anyone else...been this way since BEFORE 1983, when I first started working in a Mental Health Group Home...

    • 3 years ago
  • lj111
  • bedeboop
    • 0
      bedeboop  

    • I had no idea there was a taboo...figured, or assumed I guess, that being adults they were allowed to do whatever they liked.

    • 3 years ago
  • ninepounds6
    • 0
      ninepounds6  

    • I cannot wait to be put in the nursing home! It is my goal to be known as the East Wing Slut who will do anything for a second helping of banana pudding!

    • 3 years ago
  • lalivz
    • 0
      lalivz  

    • If sex is something most enjoy once having it at a young age why in the world would there be an age where the pleasure stops! Let grandma and pop pop get there fun too! Im glad this was posted because there is no way in hell I'll be satisfied with my love life ending at 60 either!

    • 3 years ago
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  

    • You can just see the sitcom version "I've fallen, and I can't get it up!"

      Actually I was going to write a script about an old folks home before, but now I'm afraid to.

    • 3 years ago
  • ClusterAble
  • tallmansam
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  

    • the only reason i can imagine for old people to have sex would be out of habit and boredom, and maybe an urge for intimacy that they only really know how to express sexually. but as far as libido and attraction... they're old... get a hobby, write your memoirs, take up lawn bowling. accept your infirmity!

    • 3 years ago
  • bedeboop
    • 0
      bedeboop  
    • numinant:

      Wow! Grow up! LOL I am in menopause...and think that right about now is when it might be the best...no worries, no babies, just fun. :) Although, with my luck, I'd end up pregnant at 50. EWWWWWW. Believe it or not, my best friend, at 47, just had her third child. :) Her first grandchild was born about 6 months before. Ok...I've grossed you out enough now I'm sure. :)

    • 3 years ago
  • Swiyyah
  • ClareW
    • 0
      ClareW  

    • aw no this is a sweet story (bit yuck but sweet), good for them. taboos don't serve any useful purpose so at least they're addressing the issue

    • 3 years ago
  • dirtyemowords
    • 0
      dirtyemowords  

    • mmmm wrinkly arthritic sex! Sweet. Although I do worry, once it's accepted across the board, how long will it be before we have a 'granny porn' scandal??

    • 3 years ago
  • assimilator
  • assimilator
  • kiltedandfree
    • 0
      kiltedandfree  

    • Ewwwww. I don't have any idea how I got here, because my parents NEVER had sex.

      I don't see how old people do it, their walkers would get in the way.

      A true story. My dad once told me, and I kid you not, that after he had his prostatecomy, (prostate reamed our) he couldn't ejaculate anymore because it went back into his bladder, and it upset him because mom was still in her prime. He was 85 at the time and mom was 76. I've needed therapy since.

    • 3 years ago
  • Jayface89
    • 0
      Jayface89  

    • I didn't realise it was such a taboo!
      C'mon they're people too.
      20 years times your gonna have elderly people who are in s&m that'll be fun for the nurses.
      'NO DON'T WHIP HIM, NOT HIS HIP!!!'

    • 3 years ago
  • arcticspirit
    • +1
      arcticspirit  

    • Everyone needs human touch and affection.
      I applaud this turn in attitude.
      As long as the couple is healthy enough, they better be able to enjoy sex all their lives. It's a human right, to pursue happiness.

      Thought for the day: There is a chance even you might become "old". It's not like they stop being human.

    • 3 years ago
  • kuruption
  • hapykap
    • 0
      hapykap  

    • Oh Nurse, I'll take a couple of french tickler condoms and some K-Y jelly; and will you remind Martha to take out her dentures before I get to her room..., we don't want to end up in the emergency room again!

    • 3 years ago
  • kiltedandfree
    • 0
      kiltedandfree  
    • hapykap:

      very funny. Have to tell you a nursing home story. I worked in a home while in college. One night we couldn't find Mr. Brown, he tended to walk out and get lost. We hunted and hunted. Finally, this Russian speaking lady came running or wheeling out of her room babbling something one of the nurses couldn't understand. She kept pointing to her room so the nurse went down and found Mr. Brown laying on top of her bed stark naked in the famous Bert Reynolds pose and said "If I knew you would get so upset, I would have brought the whole team". He used to work with the OSU athletic department.

    • 3 years ago
  • ClassicWinter
    • 0
      ClassicWinter  

    • Those couple posted in the picture looks quite handsome. Even old people are cute sometimes. It is okay for me to visualize as long as they're not my parents, grandparents, or my relatives in the circle.

    • 3 years ago
  • damnneargenius
  • TopScruffy
  • unimatrix0
  • satanskidney
  • justright
  • Cuddlebones
  • justright
  • Cuddlebones
  • artist_al_fine
    • 0
      artist_al_fine  

    • Wait a minute; I think we are getting our speculations going in the wrong direction. At age 62, I have a little different view around the bend. Old age is not so much loss as gain. Why not hold on to what pleases you in life physically, while you get to add spiritual levels, self-validation, and maybe a little wisdom? Just you wait … (winking)

    • 3 years ago
  • bansheewail
  • onechance
  • krush_productions
  • Ares
  • cantucwearebrothers
  • Vierotchka
  • PocketChange
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