inhumanity in nursing homes in Ireland

 Who is to blame?

 

Recovering my equilibrium following last Tuesday’ RTE investigates’ programme has been difficult. RTE showed two nursing homes, where abuse, neglect degrading and humiliating treatment seemed to be the norm was heartbreaking.

One nurse knew it was bad, said she would “not put her mother or father here”.  Did she do anything about it? Another nurse said, “if we do this, we will be creating bed sores”. She knew harm would result. It was deliberate harm, a known consequence of a behaviour. Nurses are mandated to report abuse.  Disciplinary action should be taken if they did not report it.

More and more revelations are published, a cleaner who resigned tells of call bells being disconnected at night and staff going to sleep on another floor. A psychiatrist writes about the increasing demand for psychotropic drugs to keep patient’s ‘calm’. Which generally means “so we can have an easier time’. ‘The chemical cosh’ – to knock out ‘difficult’ patients.

Why have psychiatrists and geriatricians not advanced on the Government in droves before now? Were they complicit? Supporters of cruel and degrading regimes? Why do nurses, HCA’s (health care assistants) doctors, not say; “enough is enough”. Front line staff have a duty of care. We all do, from cleaner to psychiatrists. Accountability is key. Heads should roll.

Is it Irish culture to treat people so badly? Old people, disabled people, sick people. Maybe it is. You have only to read some of the reports; Ryan, McClean/Kilcornan, Kennedy, Brandon, McCoy, Leas Cross, McIlroy, Farrelly, to realise perhaps violence, degradation, and poor and inadequate care, then secrecy, was/is part of Irish culture! The culture of the HSE, practitioners and workers. What else accounts for ongoing vulnerable people being abused, degraded, humiliated?

It has become so normalised…and acceptable. They can not see abuse, degradation, harm. Or at least they didn’t see it enough to take action.

When HIQA can say ‘non-compliant’ or ‘repeat non-compliance’, without consequences there is no safety.

In the Emeis Homes one staff nurse, the whistleblower, saw and acted.

This has all happened before. Let’s refresh our memories about ‘Emily’, raped by a carer multiple times, in another nursing home (2020). Marcella Leonard, a top social work specialist, with a safeguarding team, was brought in to review the files, of other residents to see if there could possibly be further victims. What happened?

The team sent an interim report to the HSE in April 2021, to give it "a very clear message" that the review was uncovering "systemic evidence" that Emily was not the only victim”.  Yet her teams work was shut down.  

" What does it say about an organisation (HSE) rather than providing that team with more support to continue to find the evidence, they shut them down” (Leanard).  No one asked or answered “why?”

In 2023 safeguarding expert Jackie McIlroy was brought in.

The Irish Association of social workers (IASW) 2023, said the (McIIroy) report vindicated the work of the safeguarding social work team in the Emily case. They added; Adults at risk of abuse are paying the price for poor oversight of safeguarding at both local and national level in the HSE," the group said.

This is a stunning observation, but I know it to be true. Poor oversight of safeguarding is not an observation of professional good practice. It is a standard of shame. It leaves vulnerable disabled older people at risk. The leaders, the managers, are not up to scratch. They are failing. They are not fit for the job.

Then quite shockingly, IASW said in 2023, it welcomes HSE chief Bernard Gloster's "genuine commitment to reviewing safeguarding structures"…was there really a genuine commitment to review safeguarding structures in 2023 following the McIlroy report? Where are these reviews? Where is the new legislation? Where are the new structures? Where is the evidence?

I still await a reply to my own letter to Bernard Gloster. It’s urgent, has been urgent for several years, but I cannot penetrate the HSE answerphone system and they never phone back.  All you get is; “I am sorry I am not available. Please leave a message and I’ll call you as soon as I can”. They don’t.

It is my very sad belief, that elder older people and disabled people are not considered full citizens in Ireland. We are expendable. Nothing becomes urgent. There is no urgent in our care. They wait for us to die. Quality of life has an end point – age 65.

Are we going to sit back and allow that? When does abuse humiliation and harm to older people, older disabled people become urgent?

 

The HSE and HIQA are both responsible for large numbers of vulnerable people being abused in Ireland, both in institutions and the community. Do we now say both organizations are not fit for purpose?