Care home abuse

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Caution: 

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13611089

I was slightly shocked at the close resemblance to the name of this establishment to the one I invented for "Sweat and Tears"

The images are filtered, but they are still atrocious. Watch with care.

Comments

Care home abuse

Happens here in America as well.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

And People Wonder How Naziism Came About

joannebarbarella's picture

These are the people who probably live next door to you inflicting systematic, casual, brutality on those who can't fight back.

Sickening,

Joanne

There are two serious problems here.

First, of course, is the issue of the treatment of these people. This is criminal, and should be treated in that manner. The owners of Wintererborne are responsible for the actions of their employees.

Second, though, is the way this reflects on the industry. I worked as a Certified Nurses Aide in a home for people with severe impairments, dementia and Alzheimer's. It is NOT a job for the faint of heart, or the impatient. We took our resaponsibilities VERY seriously, and we were monitored, trained and (when necessary) corrected on our interaction with the patients. It was a very hard job, but I felt a great affection for many of my patients. It was often funny, sometimes disgusting, but generally a rewarding job that I wish frequently that I could return to.

An incident like this has people wondering. Can I trust the place where my relative is? Are they truly doing their best for them? Do they really have the best interests of the patients in mind?

People have enough to worry about, they need to know that, should it be necessary, their relatives will be well cared for by people that have devoted themselves to providing quality care. This is just disgusting.

Wren

Rewards

There you have the key, in some ways. The rewards from that sort of job will attract a certain type of caring individual, but it is the financial rewards which attract the other sort. Peanuts are paid, monkeys are hired. As long as the only consideration is profitability, things like this will happen. I am not saying that better pay would cure it, but the low pay certainly makes it worse.

It'll get worse before it gets better...

There have already been numerous documentaries over the past few years regarding abuse and neglect of the elderly in both 'ordinary' residential care and home care situations. Unfortunately, with current government cutbacks, many (I'd hazard a guess at somewhere between most and all) are scaling back or even eliminating internal social care provision, because it is considerably more expensive to run than the private sector. However, the private sector is virtually unregulated (the Care Quality Commission now just checks they meet minimum standards and doesn't bother inspecting again unless they get a significant degree of complaints, rather than assessing each home on a regular basis and awarding it a rating), and many companies (particularly PLCs) run a business strategy of "profit maximisation" - i.e. make more profits each consecutive year. There's a limit to how far they can hike fees, so they'll pay their staff peanuts, expect them to work long hours, skimp on maintenance, and buy the cheapest resources they can get their hands on.

The current government's strategy for pretty much the entire public sector is to open it up to market forces, and expect the market to maintain and improve standards through competition alone. The so-called "Big Society" (which no-one really understands - the PM's attempted to relaunch it four times so far, to a lukewarm reception from everyone except the party faithful) has pretty much failed to materialise, and many are cynical enough to think it really translates as "small government" - transfer as much responsibility for spending decisions out of the hands of central and local government, so when the money dries up they can wash their hands and say "nothing to do with us - we don't control where the money's spent!"

 

Bike Resources

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!