6 nursing home workers charged in abuse caught on tape

6 nursing home workers charged in abuse caught on tape

Sometimes, when a Chicago-area nursing home is accused of abuse against its residents, the management of the facility will say that the abuse was due to one or two bad employees out of a staff of ethical, dedicated workers. Sadly, when six employees of a nursing home participate in abusing a resident or turn a blind eye to the mistreatment, that argument is unlikely to wash.

Six employees of a nursing home in another state are facing criminal charges based on hidden camera footage that appears to depict four of the workers hitting and jostling a resident of the home who suffers from dementia. After suspicions were raised about the man’s treatment, a hidden camera, sometimes called a “granny cam,” was placed in the man’s room. An article about the nursing home abuse does not say who first became concerned, but in general it is family members who must speak up on a resident’s behalf when he or she is too ill to say something.

Footage from the camera shows workers hitting the resident and slamming his head against his bed’s side rails because they were having trouble rolling him over. Workers also appear to be aggressively rolling him around in his wheelchair without regard to his comfort, dignity or safety.

Investigators say that the four workers were those charged on Feb. 11 with felony battery and neglect. Two other nursing home staffers were charged with failure to report batter, neglect or exploitation of an endangered adult. It is not clear whether any of the six defendants are still employed by the nursing home.

Source: Evansville Courier & Press, “Six charged in investigation of abuse of resident at Jasper, Ind., nursing home,” Feb. 11, 2013