By Brie Handgraaf
Rocky Mount Telegram
August 14, 2010
Caring for an elderly loved one oftentimes becomes burdensome, so many people turn to facilities or personal caretakers to lend a hand. However, one Rocky Mount family alleges that decision almost had fatal consequences.
Carol Morgan said her family hired an unidentified personal caretaker in June to assist two others they’d hired to care for her parents.
“My husband knew her husband, and my sister and I met with her for two-and-a-half hours,” Morgan said. “We got a criminal history check, and that didn’t show anything. She was a nice, caring individual.”
She said the woman wasn’t licensed, but the two other caretakers weren’t either, and “we’ve never had any problems before.”
“We are not 100 percent trusting with anyone and even less with her, but we had to trust her because we had to have help,” she said.
Morgan said all that changed when her mother, Jeanette Hart, received an overdose of morphine, a drug not even prescribed to her.
“(The caretaker) called my sister to say mother had a stroke,” Morgan recalled. “Mother is in perfect health, so my sister was bewildered and drove there to find my mother unconscious.”
Hart was in the intensive care unit at Nash General Hospital for several days. Rocky Mount police investigated. The case was reviewed by the district attorney’s office, and prosecution was declined.
“I don’t know of anything else I could have done to check on (the caretaker),” she said. “It is like a baby sitter, you don’t know who a person is until something happens.”
Hart has recovered from the incident, and Morgan said they still have the other two caretakers.
“I will never put (my parents) in a nursing home,” Morgan said. “Caring for them is beating me down, but I can’t put them in a home.”
Morgan’s situation is not an uncommon occurrence. Statistics from Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation in an Aging America shows “between 1 and 2 million Americans, age 65 and older, have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by someone on who they depended for care or protection.”
Nash County Department of Social Services Director Melvia Batts said they investigate many adult protective services reports each year.
“We receive reports covering the whole gamut from caretaker neglect to self-neglect where people are failing to take medication or something like that,” Batts said. “We get reports from family members and medical providers that are concerned.”
Nash County has one social worker responsible for these reports, and officials said any incident of neglect or abuse is considered serious.
“If it is my loved one, I see any level as very serious,” Batts said.
Batts said there are precautions people can take when looking into individual caretakers or facilities.
“I like the old adage: trust, but verify,” she said. “If a caretaker is saying they are licensed through a particular facility or the state, check it out.”
She said it also is important to be observant of any changes going on with their loved one.
“People need to be more attentive to the elderly,” she said. “They have to visit and observe any changes that may be occurring. You have to be vigilant.”
To report elder abuse, neglect or exploitation, call the Department of Social Services at 459-1434 in Nash County or 641-7988 in Edgecombe County.
SOURCE: Rocky Mount Telegram
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