Sunday, September 27, 2009

Preying on the Frail

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 her 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 over the past two decades, a Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel investigation found. Hundreds more slipped through because employers failed to check their backgrounds or kept them on the job despite their criminal pasts.

Full Article and Source:
Preying on the Frail: When Criminals Care for the Elderly and Disabled

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the hell do we need government for, if they can't stop this kind of thing?

wisernow said...

No comment due to the fact of what I have to say will most certainly be "rejected" for very offensive language.

StandUp said...

No question about it, nursing facilities need to be doing background checks, paying their employees a decent wage and holding them accountable for doing their jobs.

Anonymous said...

Nursing homes are known to take just about anybody and give them a job.

And it's because they don't want to pay their aides. The owners/managers make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but they won't pay their aides.

So, that's a big indication of how they really feel about "care".