By Rebecca Todd - The Press
14 February 2009
Elder abuse was in the spotlight yesterday as a caregiver looked to take his former employer to task over substandard care in a Christchurch rest home.
The man took a case to the Employment Relations Authority claiming he was essentially fired from the rest home which has name suppression because he raised a raft of issues relating to abuse and low-quality care.
These included people being left to sit in soiled underwear and incontinence pads, leaving residents on the toilet for up to an hour at a time and most seriously, residents not being given their daily medication.
His employer told the authority hearing in Christchurch yesterday that the man was fired for failing to comply with company policy. She said he had raised issues through the wrong channels and would not accept the rule that no physical restraint should be used on residents.
The man said caregivers and residents needed greater protections and there were times when older people needed to be restrained for everybody's safety.
The problems were not caused by frontline workers, his statement said, but by "the failure of those in authority to establish proper monitoring systems and policies".
No comments:
Post a Comment