I’ve always assumed (with absolutely no evidence one way or another) that nursing homes are a largely modern (past 50-or-so years) creation, and that back in olden days, clueless elders lived out their twilight years with some their children.
How and when, in fact, did the concept of nursing homes arize?
If I’m not mistaken, they used to call them sanitoriums or asylums. They were very inhumane and they were places that people were put to die. Thank goodness those days are gone, at least in this country.
Of course, I may be wrong, but I seem to remember as a kid growing up that there was a sanitorium a few miles away from my house. Today the same place is a “skilled care facility” that cares for Alzhiemers patients.
I do not know when these institution were started, but I believe that are older than 50 or even 150 years. They were also called “homes for the aged”, were run by religiou charities. Of course, people knew less about Alzheimer’s disease, or organic brain syndrom and how they are different from “health” infirmity…