Panorama - Undercover hospital abuse.

[thenightsky]

Anyone else watching this? As an ex-psychiatric nurse I'm shocked this is still going on. I was working in the 80s with some vile staff, but thought it had all been stamped out now.

[TheRealKimmySchmidt63]

Please sign petition

chng.it/TYkSDQkbpP

[thenightsky]

Good!

[WonderBoy]

BBC are reporting that 10 staff - 7 men and 3 women - have now been arrested.

[staydazzling]

there's a bit problem with deliberate and chronic understaffing from care home managers, and refusal to get agency staff in when dangerously understaffed, I've worked in agency and there is a stigma but I noticed a lot of senior people used the "oh you don't want agency" to justify keeping these places dangerously understaffed for profit,....senior staff can't blame it on the agency workers if they aren't competent enough to delegate properly and get other workers to work as a team., I once said this in front of 2 seniors and a nurse and they just looked rather affronted.

[Grumpymug]

How can they sit back

Fear of unemployment and UC.

Exactly. And the fact that very little, if anything is done, so you end up out of a job and for nothing, and you're not even there to offer what little protection you can. I was a whistleblower twice, got sacked before the end of the shift on one, though in that case there was irrefutable evidence that the person was in the wrong, and I got my job back - but you know what happened then? Nothing ever happened in front of me, I'm not stupid and I know it went on, but in front of me (and a few other staff who were the same) all was by the book. So although it helped that person at that time, ultimately it didn't protect anyone else. That place was on a warning from cqc and has been since - they expanded to include another unit and more beds! How on earth could that be allowed? Who the fuck thought that was in the best interests of the people living and going to live there? An already failing place allowed more people? I'll tell you who, those pocketing the profit!

This is far, far wider than just care workers, it is corrupt right from the top down and that's why nothing will change.

[HelenaDove]

How can they sit back


Fear of unemployment and UC.

[HelenaDove]

YY @staydazzling. i posted this on another thread.


There is a way that the Government could lessen the chance or risk of abuse in these homes. All it would take is the stroke of a pen but they wont do it.

They could take care work completely off the table in Job Centres.

So no one who is unsuitable for this job ends up doing it because the alternative is a benefit/UC sanction. .

Until this happens i will continue to rightly assume that they dont give a shit.

[purpleme12]

This is absolutely shocking. But it was the nurse involved as well, not just the 'care workers'. I don't know it's managed to go on. The other people who weren't abusing must have seen this. How can they sit back? One of them doing the abuse was apparently an experienced care worker she said

[WonderBoy]

I have just commented on the 'Whorlton Hall Abuse' thread in AIBU. (Sorry I can't link).

[TheRealKimmySchmidt63]

Watching this now so awful and horrific they should all be locked up - feel sick watching this - how can people do this!!

[Cloudpillows]

Agree with all comments. It’s hard to be a whistleblower because of the backlash against you and there is no protection. Just nearly mouthed politicians posturing like the gov agencies that are supposed to monitor these places. I have raised concerns in a for profit Sen school/ care home and lost job, career and reputation. Carers, backed up by corrupt management get away with abuse and get off on being put in a position of power over those who can’t fight back. Utterly unemployable in any other setting with limited intelligence and little in the way of education. Abuse will continue while settings like these exist and attitudes to autism continue to be in the dark ages.

[ChihuahuaMummy1]

Thanks for explaining @Grumpymug

[Grumpymug]

@ChihuahuaMummy1

I believe how you have to have, or be working towards, an nvq level 2 in health and social care. There's a reason it's dubbed 'not very qualified' though. It's nigh on impossible to put the standards you learn into practice. Not because they're not achievable, but because no where will stump up enough staff and equipment to do so.
That said, the nurses involved have qualifications, as will the management. But yes, you can pretty much walk into a care job without anything, yes there's the dbs check, but all that means is you haven't been caught before. That place was a closed environment, it was a culture that developed through lack of accountibility - because there was no one to account to. It's time the cqc started doing what panorama have done more than once as a matter of course, that'd be a care job I'd willingly take.

[ChihuahuaMummy1]

They are bullies and obviously took the job to intimidate the patients.As far as I know you need little or no qualifications to do these jobs which doesnt help although I apologise if that's wrong.

[WhoWants2Know]

After Winterbourne, everyone said "This must never happen again!"

And then, instead of putting more systems in place to keep people safe, the tories decimated social care funding.

Guess what? It happened again.

[Grumpymug]

That was just awful to watch. I was expecting a mix of some bad staff and lack of adequate staffing and training that was leading to people not being cared for properly - because that's what I've witnessed in the past, but that wasn't the case. That came from management.
Being honest, some of the restraint techniques don't really work in all situations, however the restraining I saw was totally avoidable in the first place, I was in an emi unit for 5 years, and the residents could sometimes get violent. You only ever restrained anyone to protect another client, and the quickest way to de-escalate a situation was to remove the focus of the aggression - yourself, other clients etc etc, restraint was an absolute last resort to prevent injury. At the point of the aggression by those patients, restraint wasn't needed, the staff just needed to back away. But then if they hadn't been fucking goading them into a reaction in the first place then the aggression wouldn't have happened anyway.
For the assistant manager to basically say "This is what we write, but this is what we do" is just so disgusting. I agree that the restraint techniques don't always work well, and can result in staff getting a split lip, bloody nose, black eye (I've been there) but that's another reason to bloody well make it a last resort! It puts everyone at risk. Staff and patients.
I am also so shocked that this isn't a national scandal, that so far I've found this thread about it and nothing else. There's a longer thread I'm on about breakfast in a hotel than this one!
But I feel powerless, just like I did when I worked in care, because no one listens. The EMI unit I worked on was cqc poor, 6/7 years ago when I left - not only is it still open (and has been in the press for poor standards and ratings) but it expanded a couple of years ago.
What is it going to take to get change?

[staydazzling]

it's more to do with specific units or companies having toxic work cultures, I was indecently assaulted on my first ever waking night working in care, when I spoke to a superior about it they thought it was hilarious and spread it about, it creates a wierd 2 sided toxic world of secrecy because the people who should be accountable aren't. However I've worked agency and experienced many care homes, good, okay and bad, most fall into ok, one's that are bad you can generally sense tbh. sending people miles away from family is a big problem, also an issue which doesn't get enough attention which isn't fair on balance, I've seen a few cases where residents have been moved homes due to aggressive abusive relatives, so sadly a lot of people being moved about don't always have great family networks to begin with.

[PrincessScarlett]

I think the problem is more widespread than we would like to believe. Agree with PPs saying job centres push anyone into a carer role. And sadly, I think it attracts the worst type of people.

A friend of a friend used to work in a care home for dementia patients were carers behaved appallingly. She didn't want to say anything as the behaviour came all the way from management. My opinion of her went downhill as I just couldn't believe she stood by and let such behaviour go on.

There are so many amazing carers out there that do a fantastic job but there are too many awful ones.

[PeapodBurgundy]

@Tiredemma

Them and others being charged, other staff being disciplined for not following safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures.

[houseofrabbits]

I'm watching this on iPlayer. I watched the Winterbourne one when it was on and I can't remember it being as bad as this?! This is absolutely disgusting and I hope everyone involved is charged with at least assault! I'm finding it extremely difficult to watch and I can't begin to imagine how those poor vulnerable adults feel.

[Grumpymug]

Going to find this and watch it this morning. However this -

Poppyinafieldofdreams

Exploitation of the elderly is rife and a massive hidden scandal. Someone we know had their house stolen we suspect by a care worker when the owner had Alzheimer’s. It’s common place from what I have read. You really need to monitor your parents. The people doing this get away with it. It’s dreadful. Nobody is bothered.

Is in my experience, so sadly true. I was a good (senior) care assistant, I cared, I was constantly deprived of the equipment, staff, training and basic necessities to do my job properly.
I whistleblew on 2 occasions. One I was called to an NMC hearing as a witness, because of something the rgn manager did. I want to protect the poor resident and his family, but I was prevented getting him help when he needed it. Luckily I'm smarter than him and the help was made available, and csci (now cqc) made aware. He sacked me on the spot. I was asked back 2 days later by the assistant manager.
I no longer work in care, and many good care workers I know don't either, I burned out constantly fighting for what should have been delivered without question for those in our care. I came to the conclusion that until profit from people's care is capped or ideally stopped, none of this will stop, because the driving force is profit for the owners, and that's leading to utterly shit decisions regarding people's care, corner cutting and money saving schemes. I'd love to see all care homes run in a non for profit way, or profit capped at a certain % and anything else ploughed back into the good of the clients. I wish I'd had the energy and strength to keep fighting, I made a difference to a few people, just not enough, and as the above pp said, no body is bothered, no one listens, something like this comes along and the public are up in arms for a few weeks, and then it dies down and everyone forgets again. It should be a national scandal, government should be taking this seriously instead of pissing around with Brexit. There shouldn't be a next time.

[joystir59]

Couldn't watch this. So cruel

[RighteousSista]

Am I the only one who hopes they end up with a custodial sentence for the outcome of their cruel actions so they end up being someone's bitch? I am guessing that being identifiable in the film may cause some problems for them so maybe karma may prevail.

[WhoWants2Know]

I've worked in this sector for nearly 20 years, and it's one of the few vocations I have ever seen where wages have gone down despite inflation because of constant funding cuts by local authorities.

So instead of having good, degree educated staff who stay in the field and make use of their knowledge and experience, they have a constant influx of people who don't really give a shit and are sent by the job centre.

The good staff can't make ends meet and end up getting better pay at places like Lidl.

[Shadycorner]

I didn't watch the whole programme but saw extracts on the news and that was enough frankly.

I take the points about poor management, underfunding and job centres pushing unsuitable candidates in to care work, but do none of these so called "carers" know right from wrong? Call me old fashioned but what about individual moral responsibility here? There is no excuse for such vile, disgusting behaviour that was totally lacking in any kindness or compassion, never mind professionalism.