panoram documentry

Agree that what was shown was pretty awful, and we need to find ways of ensuring that this doesn't happen again. One of the things that I feel the programme really missed was the importance of good leadership and the vital role of the registered manager in ensuring that staff have both the training and the supervision that enables them to deliver good quality care and quickly roots out poor practice and attitudes. SCA have recently published a book on just this topic - th importance of the manager's role and I would commend it to you as an excellent way of thinking through the issues. Bad practice is never acceptable but we need to ensure that we create cutures that allow the practice to be challenged and not just to rely on 'big brother', all that will do is oush things underground.

yes i totally agree and i didnt mean it to rely on the cameras i just meant to ensure that all vunerable adults have extra safety... and no i agree bad practice is never acceptable.. whats the book called.. i think the documentry could of also followed as you said good paractice and carers as well as what it showed, because i feel this puts most of the carers in a dim light when people see this sort of disgraceful thing.

A bit off topic, but there was a Dispatches documentary about unsatisfactory deaths a while ago.

One poor chap died at home in pain, because he should have had a morphine driver set up. He had 3 different 'carer groups': his GP, and separate day and night district nurse teams. Only one of the 3 'teams', was allowed to set up a morphine driver - that team didn't answer calls from either his wife, or from the GP. So his wife had to keep calling 999, and paramedics could only give him pain releif which would wear off after about 2 hours - this went on for, from memory, the 2 days prior to his death.

It should not happen !

It should not happen - but it does! I saw the dispatches and it was caused by a segmented, uncoordinated care package, for many this is the 'norm' . A friend of mine is currently recieving palliative care and the service up until now has been 1st class, some are not so lucky. As for the Panorama documentary, I still belive a CRB just means you have not been caught yet! There will be many more people out there now suffering the same, if not worse , abuse and indignity. We need to be more aware and more able to confidently report concerns. We need more training and supervision and more experience when working 1 - 1 , currently the demand for home care services is high so providers , do employ inexperienced ,underqualified staff. They are not all bad, but as the media has shown - not all good either!

I did watch the panorama documentary it was awful what he done to the vulnerable lady. I feel so sorry to the family. I think what we can do is to put more staff and management should give more training to staff. Basically this thing will not be happen if all care staff has a proper training. As a dignity Champion i feel bad when i saw my fellow Filipino done this to old one we should not do this especially to those vulnerable people and needs our help. Think about your family and what if someone will do the same to your old one and even though. I would like to spread this messages to all carer who care a vulnerable people we should care them and respect their dignity and privacy. Love them as your family cause at the end of the day when you do nice to people good will come back to you. You care that you given to them will come back to you as well. Help them to maintained their dignity and more support as they needed.

Rochelle Monte

They have just altered the rules, so that suitably qualified nurses and pharmacists can now prescribe drugs such as morphine - that might help with the type of problem Dispatches highlighted.

I believe that no amount of training can make a carer treat an individual with dignity unless they are willing to change their attitudes. As a reporter of abuse, I have come to realise that there are some people working in the care industry who enjoy abusing their power. You cannot train someone to be a caring person if they take pleasure in harming others. The only way to ensure that vulnerable people are safeguarded is for people to report these terrible acts of cruelty,knowing that it will be taken seriously and not brushed under the carpet. There should be severe penalties for abusers, not training. Many abusers I have reported attended the same training as everyone else. It makes me sad that staff who report abuse are often ignored due to lack of other witnesses. We can't all walk around with cameras on our uniforms, I would have liked to,
just for one day to make people believe me, but I believe that with good procedures in place, we shouldn't have to. Sorry for the rant, I'm glad you lot are as saddened as I am about abuse.

Jane, re 'Sorry for the rant, I'm glad you lot are as saddened as I am about abuse.' don't apologise for ranting - we all tend to be eventually reduced to ranting, if we are sufficiently messed about by 'absurd behaviours/systems' !

Just leave enough explanatory logic in the rant, to make it 'stand up'.