Florida seniors and disabled adults too frail to live on their own have been beaten, neglected and robbed by caregivers with criminal records.
A cancer patient at a Pompano Beach assisted living facility watched helplessly from bed as a nurse's aide with a record for theft rifled through her handbag and stole $165.
"What are you doing with my bag?" a police report quoted her as saying. "You have no right. Put it down."
A video camera caught an aide at a North Miami Beach group home for the disabled shoving a cerebral palsy patient face-first to the floor, busting her lip. The aide had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and never should have been working there.
More than 3,500 people with criminal records — including rape, robbery and murder — have been allowed to work with the elderly, disabled and infirm through exemptions granted by the state the past two decades, a Sun Sentinel investigation found. Hundreds more slipped through because employers failed to check their backgrounds or kept them on the job despite their criminal past.
Screening gaps
Florida has a patchwork of controls for checking caregivers of the elderly that seems to put more emphasis on protecting against embezzlement than safeguarding patients.
Full Article and Source:
Convicted Felongs Could Be Working in Your Mother's or Father's Nursing Home
Thank you for this story. It's important for anyone who has a family member or loved one in a nursing home to know that things are not what they appear.
ReplyDeleteThe nursing home reform movement needs more volunteers to continue exposing these autrocities.
If we don't clean up nursing homes, we may find ourselves subject to this very abuse when we get elderly or disabled.
I hope this story gains national attention.
ReplyDeleteAnd an award for the reporter.
It's outrageous. Any nursing home found to have a felon working on the staff should be disciplined - including a hefty fine.
ReplyDeleteThe fine should then be given to organizations working toward nursing home reform.
I hate this about nursing homes.
ReplyDelete"Nursing homes" -- no, they're not "home"; they're cold, stark "facilities".
And "residents" -- I don't like that either, altho it's not quite as offensive. They're "patients" -- not "residents".
Many who live in nursing facilities would call themselves "inmates" instead.
Ever file a complaint against a nursing home? It's practically a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteThe common response is, "I didn't see it happen" -- which means, of course, they're denying that whatever you report happened without even looking into it.
In every nursing home, without exception, you'll find one or two caring people who are there to do their best. They hate the conditions but stay because they know they are the only hope the residents have if they are to have "care" at all.
ReplyDeleteIt just gives me nightmares.
ReplyDeleteHow awful to think about defenseless, helpless people at the mercy of these people.