One in seven nursing home residents never go to visit friends, relatives: report

One in seven residents of nursing homes in the Netherlands are very rarely or never able to leave the nursing home to go visit friends or family, and a quarter of the elderly people almost never go outside, according to a report by social and cultural planning office SCP. According to the report, these elderly people would like to get out of the nursing home every now and again, but can't because there's no one to help them or their health problems don't allow it, RTL Nieuws reports.

According to the report, in 2015 about 117 thousand elderly people lived in nursing homes in the Netherlands. The majority of them are living in nursing homes due to health problems. Most of the residents are women over the age of 80. The most common health problems in nursing homes are physical limitations, problems with sleep, pain problems, and memory problems or dementia.

Four out of five nursing home residents have severe physical limitations. These limitations are often the reason the elderly can't go outside as often as they'd like. Half of the nursing home residents said that they would like to go outside more often.

Health problems are also the main reason many nursing home residents cant go visit family or friends. The SCP adds that most fortunately have people that come visit them - 80 percent of the elderly people in nursing homes have children and grandchildren who come visit, usually once a week.