Florida bill would allow nursing home residents to install cameras in rooms

CAPE CORAL, Fla. —

Arista Ramsey keeps her late mother, Beverly, as close to her heart as she can.

"She was my bestie. I got her cremated," Ramsey said, holding a heart-shaped necklace that contains her mother's ashes. "(She’s) always with me."

Despite all the good times they shared, Ramsey is still haunted by what happened to her mother at The Woodlands assisted living facility in Cape Coral.

"I regretted putting her here," Ramsey said. "The place was great when I first got here, but it just went downhill so fast."

A Facility in Decline

Ramsey, who volunteered to cut hair at the facility, captured some of the problems with her camera, including dark water stains on the ceiling in one of the hallways.

"It was horrible," Ramsey said. "The place was falling apart around us."

And not just that.

Ramsey said her mother, who suffered from dementia, was sexually assaulted by another resident. She eventually pulled her mother out of the facility.

Then, in November 2023, it was shut down by the state.

An emergency order against the facility reported that residents at The Woodlands were living with bed bugs, leaking pipes and, in some areas, no access to hot water.

The state also reported a resident wandering out of the facility, a resident falling through a glass window and a case of sexual assault.

Seniors had to be relocated to other facilities.

"I felt like, that the lives of the people that were left were saved," Ramsey said of the closure.

A Push for Change

Now, a new bill titled SB 64: Electronic Monitoring Devices in Long-term Care Facilities was introduced in the Florida legislature that aims to better protect seniors. It would allow them to install cameras in their rooms at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

The proposed legislation is being pushed by Sen. Ileana Garcia. It would give a resident — or the representative of one — the right to record video, audio or both without resistance from the facility.

The resident and their family would have to pay for the camera, and rooms with another resident would require consent, among other conditions.

The bill still has a long way to go before becoming law.

"If a family member or a caregiver is managing care for a loved one and they're not geographically co-located, I imagine that could give someone a lot of peace of mind," Sarah Gualco told NBC2.

Gualco is with the Area Agency on Aging for Southwest Florida, which has a program that trains people on how to spot and prevent elder abuse.

While cameras could help address that problem, Gualco said it’s also important to look at why facilities cannot provide the kind of care that's expected.

"I think that there are a number of things that probably go into that," she said. "Some might be individual staff members themselves, as well as an overall lack of qualified care providers that I think we kind of feel within the whole network."

After all her mother went through, Ramsey is open to any changes that could help better protect vulnerable seniors.

"I think it's a great idea. I really do," she said of the legislation. "We do need to know what's going on. Because there's a lot of abuse in these places."

Uncertain Future for The Woodlands

State records show The Woodlands is still owned by the same company and they're working to re-open as 'Sunset Grove Assisted Living.' For now, their license is still suspended, and they are still closed.

A spokesperson for the state agency that oversees assisted living facilities said The Woodlands has to meet legal requirements and pay all fines in order to re-open.

What You Can Do

If you're concerned about the care you or a loved one is getting at a facility, you can call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE or visit the Florida AHCA Complaint Reporting Page.

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Florida bill would allow nursing home residents to install cameras in rooms