October 6, 2026
JAMDA Highlight
By Barbara Resnick, PhD, CRNP
An editorial was published in the August issue of JAMDA by Eilon Caspi, PhD, about a new form of elder mistreatment referred to as social media abuse. The author defined this as the unauthorized online sharing – without written consent from the resident or from their legally authorized representative (when the resident is incapable of giving informed consent due to cognitive disability or any other condition) – of photographs, video recordings, written communications, or any other material on social media networks or through multimedia messaging or on any other forum on the internet.
There is some history around social media abuse. Specifically, in 2015 and 2017, ProPublica published landmark reviews of disturbing incidents where care employees in nursing homes and assisted living residences took unauthorized photos and videos of residents that contained demeaning and abusive content and then posted them on social media platforms (most commonly on Snapchat and Facebook). In response to ProPublica’s 2015 review, in 2016 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published guidance on this issue for all State Survey Agencies, while the American Health Care Association acknowledged that nursing home companies are “all struggling” to address it.
Certainly, the rapid increase in Americans’ use of smartphones and social media platforms over the past two decades increases the risk of social media abuse in long- term care communities, as many more employees carry these and other camera-equipped devices with social media applications in all areas of the care setting.
It is critical, however, to recognize that any unauthorized pictures and/or videos violate a resident’s rights even if not shared. The author of this paper provides a list of examples where this type of abuse has occurred. There are no excuses for this type of abuse, such as thinking the picture will disappear after posting or that the person was not identifiable.
Patterns underlying social media abuse cases in nursing homes note that many of the victims live with dementia, and the majority of perpetrators are direct care staff members (certified nursing assistants/nurse aides). The majority of the incidents take place inside bedrooms and bathrooms (though they occur in essentially all other areas of the care setting.
The author provides a call to action to raise awareness, train staff, develop facility policies to prevent this abuse, and strengthen survey oversight of this issue, among other options. Bottom line, even for those beautiful moments we want to share with others about long-term care, encourage all staff and visitors to avoid taking pictures or videos of your residents without consent. ASK before you CLICK!
Dr. Resnick is the co-editor-in-chief of JAMDA.