Dear Editor:
Several weeks ago, the nation saw a TV report of abuse of an elderly woman in a Peterborough, Ontario nursing home. It was a film of horrid behaviour on the part of several (not only one) nursing personnel towards an Alzheimer patient, which was recorded by a son's hidden camera. The CEO of the home should be fired, since he could not even admit that this was abuse!
Then, there are those "Pollyannas" who think everything and everybody working in nursing homes are "wonderful" They are also part of the problem - denial that such behaviour takes place. We all know that there are caregivers who take their roles seriously. The problem was also: how many more patients were abused, and for how long was this going on?
Now, this happens to be year 2013, and in Ontario. It could have been anywhere across our country and other countries. There is nothing new about this sort of abuse. Twenty-five years ago, my niece Jackie LeFebvre Goebel who was working in a North Dakota Nursing Home reported a co-worker who had slapped a resident across the face, because the lady would not put on her sweater! This aide was fired because she had also been reported for not washing a patient after a bowel movement.
My niece worked for 7 months in this facility, where she experienced the cold shoulder of some co-workers for having reported the incident! After moving to Colorado, and working in a care home, she also encountered mistreatment of a resident. A very ill 40 year old resident was hungry at bedtime, because his mother had not showed up with his Sunday supper pizza treat. So, close to bedtime, the resident asked Jackie for food. She sought out the head nurse and obtained a half sandwich for him. Still hungry, she asked again, and was told by the same nurse that there was no more food on their unit and he could do without, he needed to lose weight anyway.
A caring nurse would have checked for food in other units. So, my niece, unable to leave her work, returned with the bad news and tried to make him as comfortable as she could. The next day, she learned that the mother had been hospitalized. Upset at the way he had been treated, His mother transferred him to a new home where he got good care. I commend my niece for having had the courage to report these two incidents. How many would?
The latest on the Ontario case: The police are investigating the people seen on the film. The Ontario government is hiring inspectors for Nursing Homes. Let us hope they will be responsible investigators.
I have been for years an advocate against abuse of the weaker and vulnerable; elders and children. People need to write letters to newspapers and the governments to demand reform in prevention of abuse and proper investigation of alleged cases. We see signs in care facilities that there will be zero tolerance of abuse of staff. That is good.
There also needs to be signs for zero tolerance for abuse of patients.
T. Lefebvre Prince
Yorkton, Sask.
