‘No Country for Old People’ Amazon Docuseries Exposes the Crisis in Nursing Homes

A powerful new Amazon Prime Video docuseries is pulling back the curtain on nursing home abuse — and rallying nurses, caregivers, and families to demand change.

No Country for Old People: A Nursing Home Exposé is a three-hour, three-part documentary from award-winning filmmaker Susie Singer Carter and former federal prosecutor Rick Mountcastle, known for his role in the Dopesick opioid litigation. The series, which won an Anthem Award in November 2024, is more than a film — it’s a nationwide movement for long-term care reform.

🎥 Watch the trailer or stream the docuseries on Amazon Prime Video

Carter’s Story: A Mother, an Advocate, and a Warning

The documentary began with Susie Singer Carter’s deeply personal experience caring for her mother, Norma Pecora, who lived with Alzheimer’s disease for 16 years. Norma spent the last five years of her life in a five-star-rated nursing home in Los Angeles — a facility that appeared reputable and safe on the surface.

But when COVID-19 lockdowns took effect, Carter was unable to visit in person to monitor her mother’s care. When Norma was eventually hospitalized for serious health issues, medical staff discovered a stage 4 pressure ulcer — the most advanced and dangerous type, often associated with severe neglect.

Carter says the nursing home denied responsibility and shifted blame to the hospital. It took months of persistent advocacy before she could even get her mother evaluated by a wound care specialist. That experience — and others like it — exposed serious failures not only in care, but in accountability.

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Systemic Problems Behind Polished Facades

What happened to Norma isn’t an isolated case — it’s a symptom of a larger, broken system.

No Country for Old People, which chronicles the last 6 months of Carter’s mother’s life, combines never-before-seen undercover footage, expert interviews, and personal testimonies to reveal deep flaws in many U.S. nursing homes:

• Chronic understaffing

• Profit-driven ownership, often by private equity firms

• Neglect hidden by high CMS ratings

• Limited legal accountability

The National Council on Aging estimates up to 5 million older adults are abused annually, many of them within licensed care facilities. Yet only 1 in 24 cases is ever reported.

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A Nationwide Movement for Change: ROAR

Carter and Mountcastle aren’t just telling a story — they’re building a movement.

Alongside the film, which began streaming earlier this month, Carter launched ROAR — Respect, Opportunity, Advocacy, Reform — a grassroots campaign focused on transforming long-term care through:

• Policy reform at the federal and state levels

• Greater transparency around staffing, ownership, and outcomes

• Stronger legal protections for residents and caregivers

• A cultural shift toward dignity and respect in aging

Nurses: Your Role in the Reform Effort

Nurses are often the first to recognize when something isn’t right — and in long-term care, they’re also among the first to feel the strain of unsafe conditions.

No Country for Old People highlights many of the same issues nurses have raised for years: understaffing, misuse of restraints, neglected wounds, and the emotional toll of working in a broken system.

While systemic change requires leadership at the top, nurses can play a critical role in pushing for safer, more accountable care.

🩺 What Nurses Can Do:

• Document thoroughly and honestly — records matter when issues arise

• Speak up when care falls short, whether to supervisors, ombudsmen, or licensing boards

• Support fellow nurses and CNAs facing burnout or unsafe assignments

• Stay informed about proposed staffing legislation and advocate for policy change

• Join reform efforts to elevate the voices of frontline staff

Expert Voices Behind the Film

In No Country for Old People, Carter not only shares her mother’s heartbreaking story — she also weaves it together with more than 60 interviews from across the long-term care landscape. These include former nursing home directors, elder law attorneys, healthcare providers, and some of the most respected voices in elder advocacy.

She gathered these perspectives to help viewers grapple with four central questions at the heart of the crisis:

• What happens?

• How does it happen?

• Why does it happen?

• How do we fix it?

With the help of her co-producer, Rick Mountcastle, a recently retired federal prosecutor, the project also reflects decades of experience in holding healthcare companies accountable for exploiting vulnerable patients. Despite years of prosecutions, Mountcastle rarely saw meaningful change. He brings that expertise — and his determination to confront a system that profits from neglect — to the film helping shape it into a comprehensive, multi-perspective look at how and why the system is failing — and what needs to change.

Experts featured in the series include:

• Charlene Harrington, RN, PhD, gerontologist and long-term care researcher

• Tony Chicotel, elder law attorney

• Ron Kim, New York Assemblyman and care reform advocate

• Ernie Tosh, founder of Bedsore.Law

• Lori Smetanka, Executive Director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care

🤔Nurses working in nursing homes or caring for older adults — does this documentary reflect what you’ve seen in practice? Share your thoughts in the discussion forum below.