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care home abuse around the world and how to stop it?
big brother 9
Posts: 18,153 Forum Member
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Over in the uk we don't seem to go a few months without there being an expose of care home abuse, it can range from theft, neglect and to down right horrible abuse.
We have seen it happen with children, young disabled and the elderly.
One of the most notorious cases was that of Winterborne view
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=PfvpVP2GDYbsUt61hPAE&url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224600/Winterbourne-View-care-home-abuse-reveals-criminal-acts-nurses-carers-capable-Health-Minister-Norman-Lamb-warns.html&ved=0CB8QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNFKsgr1Eg99B3MC1_2zyCezHBaqrw
And more recently this
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shocking-footage-shows-elderly-residents-being-taunted-and-abused-at-essex-care-home-9303888.html
I don't think that we will ever see an end to the abuse as a lot of the time care homes or care settings seem to employ pretty much anyone who can pass a background check.
I think the one way we could start to combat the abuse is if all healthcare staff are registered and have a pin number in a similar way to nurses and doctors, if any abuse or neglect is reported then your pin number would be revoked and criminal proceedings would start as care staff don't seem to have much at stake if they neglect or abuse where as rgn or doctors can be sacked and imprisoned should anything occur.
What om wanting to know is are we alone in the neglect and abuse of our most vulnerable people?
Does it happen in other countries?
Are the care settings more regulated in the states? I don't seem to recall much abuse being reported from the states.
How would you stop the abuse? Do you think it will end ? Have we just scratched the surface or is the reported cases just simply one offs?
We have seen it happen with children, young disabled and the elderly.
One of the most notorious cases was that of Winterborne view
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=PfvpVP2GDYbsUt61hPAE&url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224600/Winterbourne-View-care-home-abuse-reveals-criminal-acts-nurses-carers-capable-Health-Minister-Norman-Lamb-warns.html&ved=0CB8QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNFKsgr1Eg99B3MC1_2zyCezHBaqrw
And more recently this
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shocking-footage-shows-elderly-residents-being-taunted-and-abused-at-essex-care-home-9303888.html
I don't think that we will ever see an end to the abuse as a lot of the time care homes or care settings seem to employ pretty much anyone who can pass a background check.
I think the one way we could start to combat the abuse is if all healthcare staff are registered and have a pin number in a similar way to nurses and doctors, if any abuse or neglect is reported then your pin number would be revoked and criminal proceedings would start as care staff don't seem to have much at stake if they neglect or abuse where as rgn or doctors can be sacked and imprisoned should anything occur.
What om wanting to know is are we alone in the neglect and abuse of our most vulnerable people?
Does it happen in other countries?
Are the care settings more regulated in the states? I don't seem to recall much abuse being reported from the states.
How would you stop the abuse? Do you think it will end ? Have we just scratched the surface or is the reported cases just simply one offs?
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My gran's home had a rule about no personal possessions in the room. Fair enough but included one woman's asthma inhaler!!! This meant she was anxious all the time as if she had an attack she needed to ring and have someone bring it to her. Absolutely ludicrous scenario that was only resolved by a strong phone call from a hospital consultant.
That's bloody daft. Surely though it's advertising that the home potentially has thieves working there if they say that you can't have personal belongings in their room.
Also the fact that withholding someones inhaler when 99% are prescribed as prn is a huge safeguarding issue.
I always say that the majority of people who choose healthcare as a profession aren't doing so just for the money but are 100% there to help and make a difference.
I work in healthcare and although I'm trying to move out of the care sector can spot someone a mile off if they are only there for the job.
If carers were paid a better wage then I feel it would invite the wrong people into the job as if you really do care then it's not about the money (more money would be nice but not at the expense of having bad carers look after patients ), alot of people in care (and I would say the majority ) are there because of the difference to someone's lives they can make and the HUGE amount of job satisfaction they receive from doing so
That's bloody daft. Job satisfaction does not buy new clothes for your children or the replacement tyre for your car or the new door that'll finally keep the draft out of your house. Job satisfaction does not buy you and your boyfriend a night out. It does not allow your daughter to go to Alton Towers like all the rest of her friends. Job satisfaction doesn't buy anything. That's the kind of attitude that keeps health workers, the police and teachers underpaid and overworked - because we're somehow, miraculously, supposed to develop a positive quality of life with no money just through the magical powers of job satisfaction.
Fact: Pay your workers badly and their morale will be low.
I disagree, if I could afford to I would work for free, the only reason I'm looking to leave my job is because of the hours on offer are a lot better and plus I get weekends off.
There is also a lot of other jobs that pay a low wage such as supermarkets, cleaners and others.
T
Once you have done any care work and enjoyed it you would realise that either care work is for you or it isn't.
I would say if you don't get a great deal of jo satisfaction from your carers job then you are in the wrong job.
I love my job and if i could work Monday to Friday and finish before 6 then I wouldn't have considered leaving also my fellow colleagues rile me lol.
If I won the lottery I would open up a care home and run it the way one should be run and that's NOT to make a profit, too many people buy care homes to make money which is rotten.
Almost a third of these were upheld, but families claimed that their complaints – known as ‘safeguarding referrals’ – were often ignored or not taken seriously.
In one instance, a care home investigated itself after a complaint by a resident’s daughter.
Some 14,888 claims about the welfare of care home residents aged 65 and over in 2013-14 were reported to 74 councils, BBC Radio 5 Live found. Of that figure, 4,523 were substantiated.
That’s just a proportion of the true picture as only half of the 152 councils responded to the freedom of information requests made by 5 Live Investigates.
Last October the Care Quality Commission introduced tougher inspection regimes. But inspections for almost 10,000 care homes show one in five failed to meet key measures for quality, say healthcare analysts LaingBuisson who studied the reports.
It found 1,829 care homes were not fully compliant on at least one key measure, which could mean 73,000 people live in homes where care is substandard and 3,500 residents in 96 homes that failed to meet any measures."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2964549/The-care-home-abuse-epidemic-Families-make-15-000-complaints-just-one-year-s-just-fraction-true-scale.html#ixzz3SWgojhSl
It's terrible and something that could affect us all one day. I don't know what the answer is.
People don't abuse care home residents because of how much they are paid. If abuse was linked to money, there would be no rich abusers in society.
The problem is that when people commit abuse while in a work capacity, the response is ccivil. They are not treated as they would be if they abused a relative who lived with them.
Sentences for abusing people are rubbish too. This only adds to the problem.
The main reason people abuse others is because they are horrible people. They choose to bbbe cruel. They don't care about doing what is good and right. They are generally immoral, and not just when they are presented with an elderly person in a care home.
Not always an option if they are disabled like me or have dementia.
Yes your right. Those who abuse are the Lowest of the low, some neglect cases are down to "carers" not having the knowledge or aren't interested in caring for people.
Also "carer" who neglect are often victims of being institutionalised in their care setting.
To put it simpler, they are trained by or shown the way by poorly skilled carers who provide bad care as that's all they know and will often say they have provide poor care because " it's always been done like that"
I'm not condoning any neglect but everyone from carers to the patients and their families can be institutionalised.
Patients just get used to the neglect and staff just get used to cutting corners when providing care, their families won't often see actual neglect occurring but will have suspicions that's it'd going on but will often not want to move their family members as it's too much trouble or the care home is near them and moving them away will result in them not getting to see them often.
Their is difference between neglect and abuse, neglect can be unintentional aswell as intentional and a carer cab be trained the right way and will often feel guilty enough that they will be willing to attend further training so they avoid any further situation .
Abuse is the majority of the time intentional and anyone that has abused a patient will always be an abuser.
Abusers will often say "it was a one off" and say the are having a bad ime at home etc etc but I believe that they will have abused before only they haven't been caught.
The few cases that have happend that I was aware of has shown me that quite often the carers that appear to be the best or seem lovely with the patients have been the abusers.
They make a good impression in front of other staff and families but when they are on their own with the patients the true side of them comes out.
And the carers that you would expect not to be great (loud, argumentative with other staff and no self respect) often prove to be the most loving and attentive staff.
It proves that you never know what goes on behind closed doors