I work in a particular facility that is very high care and dementia specific with extra security and 'lock up'. Alot of elderly who have progressed from a history of long term mental illness and into dementia/alzhiemers are placed into this particular facility.
I can honestly say that the staff and management do a great job of caring for all of the residents to the best of their ability and full support staff and residents...  However...

It is the fellow residents in the Nursing Home that are the main cause of abuse, violence, assault and predators toward their fellow 'roommates' or 'innmates'. Due to a no restraint policy it is almost impossible to monitor every patient at all times of the day, many patients/residents perform violent acts, sexual acts and verbal assault toward one another on a daily basis.
One particular lady who is new to the facility is 78 yrs old and still very coherant, she is self caring and her memory is very intact.
She broke down and cried the other day, revealing that she feels as if she is in jail, asking "WHY am I in here? What did I do to deserve this?"
She described her environment as 'soul destroying' and said that she feels the 'jail like environment' is making her feel as if she is deteriorating in the reality of being isolated from anyone who can communicate in a rational sense.
I know for a fact that the Aged Care Assesment team classified her as a high level dementia patient and as a result she was eligble for a government funded placement in this particular specialsed dementia specific facility.
Before she was scheduled into the facility, Her son and daughter gained power of attourney, took over her estate, and sold her assets before she was assessed by ACAT in order to gain a Government funded place in a residential home under the health act - effectively this placed her in 'the next place available/urgently required' catagory - all of which was based upon an ACAT assesment during a time in which this 78 yr old woman was going through a crisis point resulting in a short trauma related period in which she displayed behvaiours of confusion, psychosis and memory loss.
This particular woman is clearly not suited to such a facility, I have seen many other nursing homes that may still have patients with dementia and challenging behaviours, yet their environment is no where near as terrifying to merely 'exist' in for those remaining few who are self caring and still able to make judgments based on rational thought processes.
So this woman sobbed in my arms and I reassured here - "dont worry - you are probably just waiting for a placemnt in a more suitable facility"..
I then found out that this was not the case and that her son and daughter (who were on an overseas holiday) did not want the option of transferring facilities for their mother for 'financial reasons'.
Maybe I'm wrong about everything that this woman told me, but in my own professional judgement I feel that she needs an 'advocate' and deserves the right to have her mental status re assessed...
I just feel terrible that this can happen to someone - for this could easliy be my predicament one day.