SAFEGUARDING

It’s some time ago now when I worked in an EMI Unit, Elderly Mentally Infirm. Building work was still going on when I started as this unit was being extended. It was set in lovely gardens with a huge fountain; this setting appeared to be the ideal place to care for its many residents.

I was shown around this unit and then had my interview. I must admit on my first viewing I was quite impressed. There was entertainment in the dayroom and there was a small self contained garden where residents could potter about in safety.

This unit had two sections. At one end the residents were very elderly and appeared to have long standing mental health issues, while at the other side of the building the residents here were not quite as poorly.

As I stared work, but I soon found that what I thought was a kind and considerate environment for the elderly was nothing more than a money grabbing institution with very little regard for the safety and well-being of its residents.

On many occasions I saw people left in wet clothing or wet beds, when I questioned this I was told that we haven’t got time and it would be done later. Later, could have several meanings. One could mean that as visitors arrived, ‘we were just about to change that person’. In coming to the end of a shift, we’ll leave it for the next shift, or let’s do it as quickly as possible.

Don’t get me wrong not all the carers that worked there were all the same, but for those who did treat their residents well were soon overawed by those who didn’t . I saw the ‘good ones’ struggle physically and emotionally in their attempts to give those they cared for dignity and respect, while aiming to use safe practices. Time after time we questioned why the ‘call bell’ system didn’t work. We were told that the electrician would look at it later (another later) they never came in the few weeks I was there.

Training their staff appeared to be alien to this unit. This was in all forms of care. The safe practices of using equipment, the handling and moving of residents and their overall approach to the people they said they were caring for to me was totally wrong.

I was on a late shift. We had had ‘Handover’ and we discussed between us at which end each of us was going to work. Not for the first time a certain carer (I use the term loosely) would choose the end of the unit she wanted to work at and it never was with the really poorly residents. Also she hand picked the carer’s she wanted to work with and it seemed to fall on deaf ears when asked by the Senior in charge of the shift to do work she didn’t want to do and so with entourage in tow off she went.

This unit charged hundreds of pounds a week and yet its residents didn’t have their basic needs met. Along with poor communication skills and little respect for privacy, I saw members of staff wash three residents with the same bar of soap.