A REAL NASTY CASE.

Hello Everyone,

This is a really terrible case of deliberate abuse that involved severely disabled adults at a care home at Farnsworth, near Bolton.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169320/Matrons-hell-Two-abusive-care-home-workers-subjected-severely-disabled-adults-regime-terror-jailed.html

It makes grim reading.

Very kind regards la chatte.

At last a prison sentence, where they will recieve treatment of the same kind, when other lags find out who they are, i really hope they get what they deserve, Lets see how big and brave they really are now

T/I

Hello La chatte / T/I.

'We will carry out a full internal review of the circumstances and detail relating to the specifics of this case to establish if any lesson

What about placing CCTV cameras in situe NOW. I am absolutely furious.

Isn't it about time the NHS wasters and the social services parasites understood the criminality they are encouraging in these dumps they place our elderly in, and then leave them there without protection of the law to be treated like scum by scum.
Sheba32

Absolutely shocking story, but sadly not unusual, except maybe that this time they got some jail time. Not enough in my opinion, and I hate to think of the long term effect of the treatment these poor residents had to endure. These type of horror stories are the reason why nobody wants to put trust in any care home.
Having seen what has happened to my FIL over the last 12 weeks in a locked ward, I am extremely concerned about his future in a care home, but I have no way of providing the care he needs myself so I need to do the best I can - I am considering how I can do some covert inspection when we get him placed in the home of our choice, but am somewhat ignorant. Thank the lord for the internet - I am investigating!

This is awful and, of course, totally unacceptable.

I have a question / comment.

Where are the resident's visitors in all this?

My friend is in care, unable to communicate effectively. I have a number of issues which we are taking-up with the Home's owner very soon. I am not talking about the sort of abuse in the home featured here.

Two of us visit my friend regularly - say every two weeks on average (there are reasons it is not more frequent). Our visits cannot be anticipated by staff as we vary the times - so we 'take them by surprise'.

Obviously we only see the Home for a relatively very short time and anything could happen at other times, especially at night. But it should also be said that we never see any other visitors, so our observations could be extremely important.

It seems to me that the above sort of abuse can only happen in places that have no visitors. I am sure that such abuse, if it is not observed, will at least be 'felt' in the atmosphere / culture of the home. I would know, I think, if the staff at my friend's home were physically abusing residents. They have sullen demeanors, sometimes, and are not communicative to me. I notice shouting and inappropriate ways of communicating with residents. But this, to me, does not indicate physical abuse of the sort in the home mentioned here (even though I call it abuse in neglect).

Residents, too, seem to be relatively content. They could be far more alert / in contact with the world / interested in their surroundings - but I think I would see signs of physical abuse (even if bruises etc were hidden) and they surely would display aggression / frustration: they don't appear to me to be drugged up to the eyeballs.

Am I naive? Perhaps. I have made up my mind to find time to chat with some other residents - first signs are that they will be happy about this.

What do others think about the lack of visitors? Is this common?

My FIL is in a locked ward of the hospital, and there are very few visitors to the people in there. I can only imagine that it is much worse at care homes - once people are resident they are easily forgotten in the daily lives of their family. I try to visit as much as I can even though there is little communication from FIL, but I still think it is worth trying to be there for him as I am not sure how much he understands. We are hoping to get him out of there within a month, and into a permanent home and hopefully we can keep a closer eye on his care since visiting is less restrictive.

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peterandjohn wrote:

I have a question / comment.

Where are the resident's visitors in all this?

Am I naive? Perhaps. I have made up my mind to find time to chat with some other residents - first signs are that they will be happy about this.

What do others think about the lack of visitors? Is this common?

Hello Peter and John.

I am certain you are aware that you have posed a very difficult and complex question

When I was able to visit my mother on a daily basis for a period of 3-6 hours per day 7/7, plus at any time of day a Dr or District nurse attended I learned a little about the dynamics in an EMI home.

Like you I found on most occasions I was the only visitor on site. A senior member of staff mentioned to me that she was pleased someone was taking an interest in the standard of accommodation provided and the standard of care provided to ALL the residence as most residence had no visitors at all. (My observations confirmed)

Fortunately the care home manager was responsive to my suggestions regarding improvements in spite of claims by the staff that they had little effect when they requested any changes, which I could believe.

The home was visited very regularly by District Nurses and GP’s so I would hope that they made observations and submitted reports. Or was I expecting too much? Also there were many social workers visiting the home on a daily basis, so what were they observing and acting upon? I think we all know the answer to that one.

In spite of my long hours spent in the home my mother was abused by a night staff worker. The person who carried out the abuse was sacked and was prosecuted for her offences. When other staff were asked why they didn’t come forward and make a complaint about her behaviour they reported that they were afraid of the offender themselves!!! My mother was unable to communicate this abuse. I believe in part she was too afraid to for fear the abuse would get more frequent.

An abuser is not going to be overt in their actions. They will chose a time when there is nobody else around to witness their actions, maybe when toileting a patient, or changing a patient’s clothing in the patient’s room. If staff are intent on abusing a patient they will find a way of carrying out the abuse by engineering an opportunity to do so.

No amount of visiting by relatives I believe would prevent abuse occurring by certain staff members. However, having said that, I did see a lot of behaviour that was less than acceptable by the staff and also nasty interaction between residents. So the fact that I was in the same room at this time did not affect certain staff’s behaviour, but at least I was able to observe such behaviour and do something about it by directly intervening.

My position now is that I am unable to visit my mother daily of even monthly (400 mile round trip). My knowledge of what goes on in the home is based on few visits only. I have good cause to criticise their standard of care even with only a few visits and have affected changes.

So is there difference between abuse and neglect, I rate them both equally distressing to observe and equally cruel to the patient to suffer.

Many visitors just do not see what is going on either because they don’t want to or just because they are not able to understand what goes on or are too afraid to report their concerns. It takes a listening ear and action on behalf of the staff as well to affect change.

So what we want are visitors who have the ability to observe injustice and have the ability and a will to obtain it. A vey tall order, however I do know that T/I managed to influence improvements on behalf of his mother and other patients and the staff offered their gratitude to him.

Thank you for raising the topic.
Sheba32