The first story (7/22/13) told the four-year tale of a sexual episode at the Windmill Manor nursing home in Coralville, Iowa, where on Christmas Day 2009, a 78-year-old man with dementia was found having sex with an 87-year-old woman with dementia. The home’s administrator and nursing director were fired, the man was forced to leave, and the regulatory and legal twists and turns illustrated how poorly prepared elderly care facilities, regulators and families are for dealing with older people with dementia who want—and have a legal right—to have sex. The second story (7/23/13) took readers inside the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, which has had a written sexuality policy since 1995. This story illustrated the same dilemmas in reverse, as the Hebrew Home is one of a very few facilities that have been willing to confront these issues. The third story reported exclusively that the AMDA, an organization that represents the medical directors who advise the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes, was urging facilities to consider adopting sexual policies and training. AMDA officials commissioned a survey focused on sex among the elderly and issued findings and recommendations in direct response to our earlier stories.
