Behavior: The New Runaways: Old Folks

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"The runaways," says Chicago Police Officer Guy Neubert, a missing-persons specialist, "are often loners who cannot handle institutional living. They have been self-reliant and suddenly everything is done for them. They have nothing to do, and they want out." In most institutions an inmate receives only $25 to $30 a month from Social Security benefits and other income, while the home gets the rest. Out on the street, he has no bed or home, but he may have independence and a Social Security check for about $300.

To restrain runaways who are too fragile to survive on the outside, Administrator Edward Farmilant of Chicago's Somerset nursing home gave the front door guard pictures of 36 patients who might make a break for it. "I may be violating their civil rights," he says, "but many would be in danger on the streets." Administrators often see a breakout coming. Says Levine: "When residents get very quiet, we know they are thinking about leaving." Levine stopped one repeater by simply converting him from prisoner to guard. Now he is an "underground security agent" who watches the back door to see that no one slips out.

Friction between patients and their nurses may also account for the impulse to escape: the helpless elderly see the nursing staff as bored and grudging; though many nurses are heroically selfless, some think of themselves as stuck at the bottom of their profession. "Nurses who work in nursing homes traditionally have been stigmatized by their professional peers," says H. Terri Brower, a professor of nursing at the University of Miami's School of Nursing. Says Ruth Tappen, another professor at the school: "Nurses are not interested in working in nursing homes. They don't want to go near the places." In a study of 581 nurses working in southern Florida, Brower found that most of her subjects had no special training in gerontology. Many admitted that they had come to actively dislike the old, a feeling that grew more intense the more they worked in geriatrics. Those who spent 75% or more of their time caring for old people had the most negative attitudes about them; the most positive views were held by nurses who managed to avoid spending any time with the elderly patients. Brewer's data seem to suggest that even within the subprofession of caring for the old, the higher the nurses' status the less time they spend with their patients. Nursing schools, Brower says, are not doing enough to prepare their graduates for the graying of America. —By John Leo. Reported by Patricia Delaney/Chicago, with other U.S. bureaus