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America is graying. In just a few years today's Baby Boomers everywhere will be turning 65.

Many of those Boomers are moving to Asheville and the mountain counties we serve. And like many communities, the graying of America has resulted in a boom of long-term care facilities in Western North Carolina.

This boom can result in poorly run facilities and abuse of residents.

Under the direction of then Assistant Managing Editor Julie Martin (now managing editor), investigative reporters Clarke Morrison and Sandee Richardson pored through thousands of state and county long-term care facility inspection reports.

The reporters also visited dozens of local long-term care facilities and interviewed residents, relatives, caregivers, administrators, public officials and lobbyists.

To ensure the integrity and credibility of our reporting, two foundational principles were decided early on: We would base our stories on research and analysis of public records, and we would respect the privacy and self-respect of the long-term care residents we interviewed and photographed.

A disturbing pattern began to emerge from the data analysis: State inspectors reported repeated abuse and neglect of residents at some facilities, but systems established by the state and federal governments were doing little to prevent the abuses from recurring.

In addition to producing heart-rending examples of human suffering and neglect, we reported the positive examples and best practices of long-term care at many facilities.

They also wrote solution-based stories that provided advice for people facing tough decisions about making long-term care provisions for themselves or loved ones.

Coinciding with the 1999 session of the North Carolina General Assembly, our series got the attention of public and elected officials who could make a difference.

The series demonstrated how the state continued to grant licenses to adult care homes regardless of the operator's previous record. As a result, legislation requiring the state to review operators' records before granting any further licenses was signed into law.

We published many letters from readers who appreciated and respected what we had done.

It also was good to see that responsible, in-depth, public-service reporting paid off in another way: Increased newspaper sales. During the four days that the series ran, year-over-year single-copy sales totaled 1,167 more than in 1998.

It was not by accident that our team's hard work produced positive results. To support Martin's editing, then Managing Editor Ed Dawson and I gave every story a challenging second, third and, in some cases, fourth read.

And every story in the eight-day series went through the news editor, copy editors, and proof readers. We re-read corrected page proofs to be certain that inadvertent errors were not introduced.

I believe we performed a valuable public service to our community, and that we did it the right way.

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