By Paul Harasim, Las Vegas Review-Journal

What Tracy Rodgers saw — or rather didn’t see — as a young nurse treating patients in a nursing home haunts her to this day.

Paul Harasim

She still finds it difficult to believe.

“There were so many people who had no one visiting,” Rodgers said, shaking her head as she sat on the couch in her Henderson home. “Not even on Christmas or other holidays. It’s hard for me to fathom what it’s like when no one comes to visit you. I know everyone has their own lives, with families and jobs. But it’s so easy for patients to fall into a depression when they have zero contact with loved ones or people from outside.”

Out of sight. Out of mind.

That mindset held by many Americans — research done by Dr. Joyce Varner of the University of South Alabama found 60 percent of nursing home patients don’t receive visitors — can have effects far beyond the psychological.

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