Shock report finds Scots dementia sufferers secretly drugged by care homes to make them behave
By Lachlan Mackinnon
OLD folk with dementia are being secretly drugged in Scots care homes to make them easier to control.
Staff are slipping sedatives into frail residents' food or drinks.
Watchdogs who made surprise visits to 30 homes in Scotland found that nine of them were drugging some of their residents in secret, probably so staff could manage them more easily.
The inspectors also learned that HALF the pensioners in the homes never got the chance to go outside.
Not one of the homes had proper systems to keep track of the drugs they were giving their old folk.
And when the investigators looked at the "individual care plans" of 182 residents, they were shocked to discover that only 24 per cent of them contained a proper history of the patient's life.
Knowing the history of the person being treated is a vital tool for dealing with dementia. But one pensioner's notes amounted to four words: "Likes cats, likes milk".
The grim findings were revealed yesterday in a major report titled Remember I'm Still Me.
The experts behind the study accused homes of taking a"one size fits all" approach to the people they looked after. And ministers vowed to use the findings to radically improve the care of Scotland's 67,000 dementia sufferers.
The inspectors visited the 30 homes between August 2008 and March this year and spoke to 1335 residents.
They found that three quarters of the old folk were being given "psychoactive" drugs to control their behaviour, treat depression or help with sleep.
Many of the residents had been on the drugs for long periods without proper reviews of the medication they were taking.
Twenty residents, in nine of the care homes, were being drugged secretly in food or drink, even though staff did not have enough knowledge to give drugs legally or safely in such a way.
People with dementia should be checked every year by a GP but "very few" residents were offered this service.
And the inspectors found "some evidence"that doctors were prescribing drugs for patients without even seeing them.
The report said half of the residents in the homes were cooped up indoors 24 hours a day.
The Care Commission pinpointed 78 areas where homes must improve and made 235 recommendations for improvement.
Public health minister Shona Robison vowed to accept them all.
Robison admitted the findings were "deeply shocking" and "a big wake-up call". And she said that while there were many good care homes, others had "serious shortcomings".
CASE STUDY: MEDICATION HIDDEN IN MUM'S SWEET
His mother Helen was sedated without her consent in Aberdeen.
Helen moved to the home in the late 1990s after suffering delusions.
Hunter, 72, said: "Shortly after entering the home, I visited her and found her unable to get out of bed. She thought she had been given something.
"When I asked, she had had an anti-psychotic drug concealed in her sweet."
He claimed staff did it a second time. Hunter said: "I saw a care assistant squirting something into her juice with a syringe."
Former piano teacher Helen was never covertly sedated again.
She died of cancer in 2000.
Guidance from the Mental Welfare Commission states drugs should only be hidden in food or drink when it is in the best interests of a patient, not the convenience of staff.
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