ABSTRACT
Relocating from a familiar surrounding to one less so can be a trying experience for anyone at any age. However, whether or not it is powerful enough to produce permanent or noticeable changes in the health and well-being of individuals, particularly high-risk individuals such as elderly and infirm persons, is a question that has been the subject of protracted controversy for several decades and that remains open to serious debate. Joined in this controversy have been physicians, social workers, psychologists, and other social scientists and health professionals. Recently, the issue of transfer trauma, or “transplantation shock,” as it has sometimes been called, has spread to the legal community where numerous cases involving the licensing and closure of health care facilities have compelled lawyers and judges to grapple with the delicate problem that illness and death may result from the stress of relocation.
