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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not understand how the care home n Panorama is still open!

72 replies

keepingupwiththejoneses · 31/05/2011 21:16

Maybe I am a little more sensitive to this as I have a son with Autism, but still the behaviour of these people is horrific!
I think these people should be locked away for abuse!

OP posts:
ohmyfucksy · 01/06/2011 00:12

God that CQC guy is pathetic - how fucking difficult can it be to work out that a care home has descended to that level? WHy does it need a television crew to find it out? He was clearly more worried about the CQC looking bad than he was about those people being abused.

Tiredmumno1 · 01/06/2011 00:13

I meant - very long time and made me

Sorry just Angry

TechnoKitten · 01/06/2011 00:16

Memoo - Daily Mail article

Just - awful. I hope they get what they deserve but the cynic in me thinks that there will be a few public scapegoats and then everything will go back to "quiet" and "normal" :(

going · 01/06/2011 00:19

It was so disgusting to see how awfully those poor people were treated, just so sad that vunerable people were being used for nasty peoples enjoyment.

Wage isn't an excuse, being lower paid doesn't make you devoid of humanity like these people were.

Meow75 · 01/06/2011 00:23

ilovesooty

Returning to this thread for the first time since my post @ 2140.

Forgive me, I wasn't intending to suggest that low wages is an excuse for their appalling behaviour. It was one of those situations where thoughts were coming out of my head all at once.

Sorry for any offence that may have been unwittingly caused.

suburbophobe · 01/06/2011 00:27

I was crying watching this..

Like they brought in a bunch of thugs rather than caring, trained people.

Unbelievable that this is Britain in 2011...

Thing is, with all the cuts going on, just going to get worse on all levels...

jasper · 01/06/2011 00:30

I know dozens of caring individuals who would LOVe to get a job at that pay and they would TRULLY care for the residents

ohboysohboysohboys · 01/06/2011 00:41

It's awful. I used to work for an independent body who assessed care homes for adults with LDs, I witnessed a lot of stuff similar to what was on panorama tonight. I used to leave work heartbroken everyday. I have a DS who will probably not live independently, I will never allow him to go into the system, it terrifies me. The one positive thing I can say is that the charity I worked for had the most amazing people I've ever met there and they never gave up on a case until the person was happy, we made sure a lot of people never worked with vulnerable people ever again.

ohmyfucksy · 01/06/2011 00:46

How is it that they hire staff who are so, so wrong? Very scary that there was a guy working there who had been a nurse for 35 years and did not give a shit that they were abusing Simone.

Are lots of people like this, and we just don't realise because they only let it out when they are around their own kind? Can one truly bad person (the ringleader) bring out the worst in all the rest? It really was like the mentality of guards in a concentration camp.

ilovesooty · 01/06/2011 01:26

Meow75 - no worries.

cricketballs · 01/06/2011 07:39

the one thing that last night's panorama has done for me is kicked me up the arse in terms of sorting out a living will for my DS.

Is it legally standing if DH and I set out a plan of who is to care for DS when we no longer can? i.e. with GP or if they are unable, live with my sister, or with his brother (if he is old enough!) or someone else etc etc?

If anyone can point me in the right direction to sort this out I would be grateful as there is no way my DS is going anywhere near one of those places

wordfactory · 01/06/2011 07:51

The staff filmed have committed serious offences with aggrevating factors and should be convicted and punished as such.

Any other staff should also be suspended until they can explain why they did not bring anything to management's attention. Turning a blind eye is never acceptable.

Management must show that this is unacceptable.

bigTillyMint · 01/06/2011 07:53

I didn't see this programme, but just saw something on the news about it.

BIL has severe LD's and cannot live at all independently. He lives in a care home where all the "clients" need 24hour care - a very demanding job for low pay, but that does not excuse what goes on.
It is contracted out and the lack of monitoring of the staff is dreadful. They do, indeed, hire unsuitable staff in the first place, and there is loads of "covering-up" of stuff that goes on - mismanaging "clients" money, neglectful care and some downright abusive practices going on.

With hindsight, it was better in the NHS care-home he was in previously, though that didn't seem great at the time.

borderslass · 01/06/2011 08:07

I didn't watch it but we had a well publicised case in a local town of home based 'carers' who where jailed for raping a mentally disabled woman.I worry because they are looking into supported accommodation for DS when he is older. story here

acumenin · 01/06/2011 08:17

The CQC is a scam. I hold the people who work for it to be thieves; no one should take a wage and deliver that "service". My DP was abused and defrauded by a care agency, and we delivered proof of the systematic and company wide fraud to the council, and the CQC gave it four stars! It's a joke.

There's no oversight. Carers can do as they please and they know it.

beesimo · 01/06/2011 08:20

I am very sorry for my remark about not putting kin in the hands of the authorities -carehomes. We are a very large extended family with a bit of brass when someone needs care we can all just muck in and give it.

It was ignorant and stupid of me to say what I did as I am sure you all want to do the best for your own had you but the chance. I honestly aren't such a smug silly bitch as I sounded it was just me gut reaction to what I was seeing sorry one and all.

lifechanger · 01/06/2011 08:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bigTillyMint · 01/06/2011 08:49

Yes, lifechanger - the management at my BIL's establishment is woeful.

Is there no inspection body, like Ofsted, to check on things UNANNOUNCED?

larrygrylls · 01/06/2011 09:03

Lifechanger,

I totally agree with you.

I watched the programme with horror but can totally see why it happened. Ill educated people are employed on a low wage and effectively just made to hang out with a bunch of people with complex needs who can be difficult. There was no leadership, did not seem to be any goals for the staff, any rewards for doing a good job or any consequences for doing a bad one. It was a Lord of the Flies situation, with poorly educated adults instead of children.

I cannot understand how the CEO of the group remains in place or how that home stays open, and, at a higher leve, the CQC (or whatever the stupid quango is called) seems to incur no penalty for not doing any job at all.

Why isn't that home closed down, or even the whole group forced into sale to someone with a better record? It is just incomprehensible and confirms my belief that accountable to the government means accountable to no one.

MonstaMunch · 01/06/2011 09:19

I'd imagine this type of thing goes unchecked in many establishments where the resident cant tell - nurseries, mental health homes, old folks homes

disgraceful!

Mrsdoasyouwouldbedoneby · 01/06/2011 09:23

I used to work in a care home and yes we did have to restrain sometimes. I couldn't watch all that programme, it made me feel sick. I had to tell DH, "no, that is NOT how you restrain someone"... well he knew that, but I said, Not that is not what I did. Most forms of restraint were 'mild' (Walking escort) and the more severe ones (supine), were more or less 'banned' and had to be double and triple reported, plus parents told etc. Only a handful of the young people had the restraint approved (by medics etc) and was only to be used when they became a severe risk to themselves and others. We were all trained in the correct procedure and couldn't even assist until we had.

He turned back over when they made her go back outside while wet. Hideous.

I did say, "you pay peanuts you get monkeys", by which I mean that low pay is NO EXCUSE but staff turn over in these places can be high and as with other areas of care (child care/elderly care), "can" attract the wrong sort of person. I am low-paid (min wage), as a preschool worker, who is required by law to be highly qualified (I had to pay for this myself as it happens). I love my job, I do it because of that, not for the wage, I would have to work else where if I needed money. It's almost catch 22 really... and obviously you do get places where those being cared for are actually cared about.

I loved where I worked, despite being kicked punched bitten etc, because I truly valued the people I worked for, and seeing their daily progress and making positive connections was extremely rewarding. The stress that made me leave was the "other" adults... they were not abusive to the kids, but made my life less happy.

Besom · 01/06/2011 10:36

This is so upsetting and awful. It's outrageous that the whistleblower had to go to the media before being taken seriously, when he obviously tried to go down official channels first.

I suspect the place is still open because the reality will be there isn't anywhere else for all the people to go at short notice. I hope the local authorities are doing some serious work to safeguard the residents now.

I tend to agree with whoever said these kinds of services should be in the public sector. But that isn't ever going to happen. Either way we need to make sure that investigating bodies have some teeth. I'd like to know exactly what the CQC did/didn't do when this was first raised.

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