TO POINT OUT...PANORAMA (TUES) Worse ever secret filming of abuse of vulnerable people.

[ScousyFogarty]

This was the most tragic ever "secret filming" by Panorama of abuse on vulnerable patients in care home. (arrests now made of some staff)

Did any of you manage to sit through the programme? It was an ordeal just to watch

oh my god fairydoll ds is so scared of needles now that sounds unbelievable BOAK

I've just watched it, and was horrified. Was in tears watching it.
But there are some good places out there - my cousin has severe LDs and challenging behaviour. She now lives in a house with 3 other people, with 24 hour care - its her home though, so they go out, can stay over with parents, and live the lives they want. Just with a lot of help. Her home is facilitated by a charity - but my aunt had to fight to find a good place for her to live when at 60 she could be a carer no more

thats horrible fairy doll,

there definately is some case of 'when you pay peanuts uyou get monkeys' in this
In denmark, sweden the staff are trained to degree level, over here barely any training at all its probably answers alot.

so if u have a degree u r not abuser i beg to differ i have worked in community where families have been abusing their relatives and they were proffessional people one 98year ols lady had no heating or hot water 2 ring camping ring for cooking on family could not give a toss waiting for her to peg it for inheritance
(haughty chuckle commet)

o if u have a degree u r not abuser i beg to differ i have worked in community where families have been abusing their relatives and they were proffessional people one 98year ols lady had no heating or hot water 2 ring camping ring for cooking on family could not give a toss waiting for her to peg it for inheritance
(haughty chuckle commet)

Thats not the point I was making the point is these people are are not as motivated due to lack of good pay and good training etc, obviously I'm generalising but theres an awful lot of people who go into caring 'becasue its easy to get into' not a good enviroment for the most vulnerable in society.

Alot of people go into 'caring' after looking after family members. As i said in my other posts if we had good management, abuse wouldn't happen so i don't think that it is the lack of qualifications. I have seen abuse and perversion towards residents at all levels. Well qualified people are well regulated, that is the difference, there is a lack of following guidence and regulation. TBH if we only employed well qualified people throughout care then we couldn't afford to run it and we could not recruit enough staff, either.

Good pay does not motivate people to be good carers. As i said there should be a system whereby everyone knows the regulations and are held personally accountable for not following them.

Good pay does not motivate people to be good carers. As i said there should be a system whereby everyone knows the regulations and are held personally accountable for not following them.

but it does help, overworked underpaid in a very difficult job is not a good system which needs to changed.

How can anyone agree with a system where the MOST vulnerable people in society are being looked after by people who are the least qualified, like I said I'm generalising but its all around.

My sis goes to a daycare centre, the record book that comes back is often barely legible, the people are nice 'or so they seem' and I just think these people are looking after very. vulnerable people and are often not much more capable, there are always exceptions but its scary how prevalent it is.

Some people work in care in the UK because you need no qualifications at all. You do need a CRB check but it takes several weeks to come and people are allowed to start work without it. In the private home (big chain) I worked in people were employed who other staff had known from school etc for years. They knew they had convictions for theft. Yet they were still employed. There were people who worked there who had absolutely no interest in being caring, it was the only job they could get. There was plenty of training. But if you put together a situation - say the same residents, with dementia, saying and doing the same things every day, often verbally or physically aggressive - with somebody on minimum wages, working shift hours (i.e. working most weekends, bank holidays, xmas day), who has had minimum level education - it's a bad mix. The crucial thing though is the manager on duty. They set the tone by example, make staff aware of what is acceptable behaviour. I think the main failings in the Panorama case is that the people who were supposed to be managing were condoning the behaviour.

And it goes on - still- in homes for the elderly, very many of whom have no-one to advocate for them even if the abuse is discovered

I didn't watch it, I might later. LittleOneMum your post re the man being psychologically tormented is so sad.

Haughty- as long as there are seniors on the shift who generally are qualified, i don't think that is a problem. You cannot prove that you are a good carer by passing any qualification and as i put in an ealier post, i know of good support workers who are being forced out of work because they are not capable of gaining qualifications.

The other staff members that i have had cause to complain about have all been well qualified, they were in the job to take advantage of vunerable people.

I am saddened, and disgusted but not surprised.
Whistleblowers are never listened to and are usually ostracised, despite cliams of protection.NO one wants the boat rocked, as that will just cost money.
Generally budgets are being cut, hands are being tied.
Less qualified staff are being employed and more non qualified staff taken on. (This cost cutting is happening at your local hospital too.)

I dont mean to imply that just because someone has a qualification they will treat someone better than those without, but as a registered nurse I have to answer to the NMC. Non qualified staff don't have to.

I can't understand why people can be so cruel. Care worker my foot. No caring involved whatsoever.

I have an autistic nephew and a little nephew with Downs Syndrome.
I worry, as do their parents about what will happen to them later in in life. Who will stand up for these poor vulnerable adults.
Mark my words, its not just happening in that one home.

Melty- i walked into a hospital to find that a care plan had been filled in completely wrong and no one was interested in the slightest, poor management has alot to answer for.

Birds, and others, can things be done (by government?) to help turn all this around?

Thanks SWC, that does sound like the right direction at least.

Birds, I am not in the least surprised by that either. And as someone who has worked in the NHS for over 20yrs, its very sad that I have come to the point of not being surprised.
Every day at work I find evidence of poor nursing and midwifery care. It gets highlighted, but nothing much seems to change.
No one (it seems) can get sacked from the NHS, they all get performance managed, "supported", and retrained.
I sincerely hope you kicked up a stink about the care plans. They are legal documents, and are required by the NMC on each and every patient.
And yes, management has a lot to answer for.

We've just had another restructure. More senior nurse jobs gone, but they have created new management jobs. (To streamline things- read cut more costs.)
I despair.
I am currently looking for another job, non NHS if I can get it.

smallwhitecat- when the inspections happen (we have unannounced inspections now) and find fault all they will do is give the home time to improve. In the case of large owners all they do is move staff around for a while, nothing really changes.

Melty- i did 'kick up a fuss' and surprise surprise, the hospital that we wanted for the patient originally, suddenly had a bed. Oh yes, the family recieved a written apology after the patient died and had been paralyzed by being sat upright instead of flat.

Truly shocking. I didn't manage to watch it all. I will remember this programme the next time I complain about the license fee.

But quite frankly who in their right mind would have employed Wayne anyway. He looks like a sadistic thug but then I think that men with tattooed necks generally are.

This was one of the most harrowing programmes I have ever seen on TV

As a nurse, I sat absolutely shocked and horrified, saddened that qualified staff could turn a blind eye or even be complicit in such disgusting treatment of vulnerable people.

Goading that poor woman who tried to jump out of a window that will haunt me forever....

As part of my job we have to use control and restraint occasionally and the things they were doing in restraining those residents just horrified me. We are taught techniques which do not inflict pain, we have it drummed into us the dangers of putting pressure on the chest, even laying on someones legs can compress their chest area and restrict breathing....people have died due to poor or aggressive restraint techniques

I hope that all of the abusers are dealt with by the courts and the Qualified nurses are struck off.

That is simply awful onelittlemum. I used to work with adults with LD in a council run day centre and I have never ever witnessed anything like what I witnessed last night on Panorama. We were low paid, but l like to think that we acted in a professional, caring and decent way. Being low paid is no excuse at all.

Are the carers not CRB checked! These are vulnerable adults, some with the minds of children and the bodies of adults so the same stringent rules should apply as with children. The service users that attended our day centre were from various residential homes, and mainly during the day they would go out to activities, be it college, day center, hobbies, SNAP, Macintyre or Supported employment. Why were these residents allowed to sit around all day bored, this should never happen.

Never in my career in health and social care come across what I saw in Panorama, I really could not have stood by and watched liked that reporter did, I would have a moral duty to intervene despite secretly filming.

The fact is, most people do not want to work in care homes. I just heard someone on Radio 4 saying that they have terrible difficulty filling vacancies. And of course that leads to the appointment not of the ideal candidate, but of virtually any candidate.

I don't know what the answer is. To work in mental health you need to be kind, patient and have physical strength. I should think there are plenty of young men who possess the latter quality but the former two?

At day centre there would be various activities e.g bowling, line dancing, days out, community activities, football, gym, as well as in house activities. For example I ran the citizenship group and arranged for the local policeman to come round in his police car to explain his role, and he let the service users have a go in it, they loved it. I also arranged a visit to the local Police Station and courthouse too which people also loved. These staff had no motivation, no caring, no nothing they were barbaric hooligans.