Care homes should stop ordering residents when to go to bed, get up and when to eat and treat the elderly with more respect, NHS watchdogs have said.
New guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) follows warnings from inspectors about care homes which forced dementia sufferers to rise at 4am to get washed and dressed, in order to fit in with staff rotas.
In other cases, elderly people have been forced to go to bed by 3 pm, while others have been left starving because they needed help to eat.
The new advice for local authorities says care homes must do more to treat residents as individuals – and put their needs ahead of those of staff.
It says too many pensioners are being denied proper care and attention, and orders councils to ensure that care homes allow elderly people to retain their identity.