Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

OMG, What is the world coming to? Once again, the CQC failed in their duty by not finding out just how abused many of the patients had been by the Care Directors , Managers and Carers at Atlas Care Homes in Devon, even though one of the patients themselves telephoned them for help. After that phone call, it was SIX MONTHS before they inspected the property and before they found the small punishment room, it was the same with all ATLAS care homes. Each had this small punishment room where patients were pushed into and locked up alone and cold. The patients were locked in this cold, empty punishment room with just a bed, no heating, windows locked, no curtains and no means of getting out, for the simple crime of having a sullen face, laughing or repeatedly asking for something. They were made to work every day from 8 am to 10 pm six days a week for their allowance, sometimes just £5, whilst the directors lived in multi-million pound homes and took lavish holidays with the money that should have been the patients.

One poor young autistic boy who had already been abused by having his jaw broken in the previous home, Winterbourne, which had been featured on Panorama, was transferred to an Atlas care home in Devon, and locked up in the punishment room after being dragged there for simply laughing too much.He, like the other patients, would be crying for the toilet and ended up wetting themselves when they were ignored.

What the hell was happening here. How the hell did the CQC not do their job of protecting these vulnerable patients?

I note in the paper that just one person has been jailed and several received suspended sentences. Each and every one of these B…..ds should have been jailed. Let them experience the trauma and pain of being locked up against their will in a cell, just as they did to those poor patients. The CQC has a lot of questions to be answered.

Are they fit for purpose?

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

It's a nightmare in many of these places, it's like carers have lost their humanity !

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

I agree to a point Julie, but I also have to put blame with management.
Whatever can be going on at the job interviews these days?

Do the bosses not ask for references any more?

Do they ever check with previous employers?

What questions are being asked at interviews?

Are the bosses completely devoid of hunches and feeling about the person sitting in front of them?

What about CRB checks or whatever they might call them now?

I suspect the wrong staff is being taken on, because they are desperate for workers.
It was certainly never like that where I used to work, you practically needed a visible halo to get through the door, but at least every one of them was a good person who genuinely cared.
This was a residential place for old folks though, not mental health patients, but surely the same diligence at interviews should apply.

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

Mups, the problem in this case is that the guilty were those at the top as well as the carers. From the owners, shareholders, directors, management and staff. They were all complicit in the abuse of these vulnerable patientss. I blame the CQC as well. After the Winterbourne scandal and the usual "Lessons will be learned" mantra, it obviously hasn't. They are damn useless. Even during one inspection they admitted they missed seeing the small punishment room.

Heads should roll at the CQC, but I bet they won't.

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

In that case, yes Shroppy, I agree, the CQC definitely has some answering to do. Dreadful, wicked abuse.

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

There is no excuse whatsoever for the abuse which has taken place in these homes. However, it is not an easy job to do, and you have to be pretty dedicated to wish to do it.

I certainly would never wished to work in a care home dealing with the elderly. I could never have looked after my late mother, I would have been convicted of murder after putting up with her for five minutes when she got old.

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

It is a good job we are not all the same then, else there would be no one to look after us oldies one day. It's gonna happen to all of us.
Tara, how would you feel if you were old, weak and lonely, and no one wanted to know?

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

Why should anyone want to know?

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

Be interesting to see if you still feel that way when it happens to you.
I prefer compassion.

Re: Questions Need To Be Answered - Now!!

One of the problems facing care homes is lack of carers with any vocation for the work. I know that people are pushed into the job to get them back into work and on minimum wage and they have little interest in the job let alone care. Certainly not an ideal situation for vulnerable people.