Woman bashed in care facility

A distraught daughter says her mother’s face was ‘‘pummeled’’ by a fellow resident of a Dunedin care facility.

‘‘She was meant to be safe,’’ Emma Shepherd said of her 55-yearold mother.

Pictures show large bruises around her eyes and mouth, with ‘‘some bruises still coming out five days after the assault’’.

On Wednesday her mother was bashed at the Pact residential facility where she has lived for the past seven weeks.

Shepherd said a 25-year-old woman assaulted her mother for warning her not to steal another flatmate’s vodka.

‘‘This chick just pummelled her face in.’’

Christchurch-based Shepherd, who is her mother’s only New Zealand next of kin and her welfare guardian, did not learn of the incident until she visited her on Saturday. Shocked at her mother’s condition, she complained to management who finally took her mother to Dunedin Hospital.

Shepherd said her mother suffered a brain injury in 2013, and survived a long-term abusive relationship resulting in her former partner being jailed. Because of the brain injury, she has been deemed to be incapable of living alone.

‘‘I trusted these people to make sure she is safe, because she is more vulnerable than she has ever been,’’ said Shepherd.

‘‘[Pact] haven’t dealt with this the right way. They have tried to cover it up.’’

Asked why her daughter wasn’t informed of the assault, Pact chief executive Louise Carr said it was ‘‘a reasonable expectation for families to be kept informed and it’s our intention to do so, subject to clients’ wishes. Many of our clients are quite capable of making their own decisions regarding such issues and we respect their wishes.’’

She confirmed the incident was being reviewed, ‘‘and, where necessary, measures put in place to prevent them occurring again’’.

‘‘As part of the incident reporting process, we will assess whether the level of support was appropriate in this instance.’’

Although she couldn’t discuss specific details due to privacy concerns, ‘‘we can say that if a client is ever hurt, we offer to take them for medical treatment’’.

‘‘It is up to the client whether he or she wishes to accept this offer.’’ Police were investigating. Shepherd was concerned her mother, who was an alcoholic, was also allowed to buy alcohol and not encouraged to eat decent food.

She paid $125 a week to stay at the St Kilda facility, with just $100 left over for groceries.

‘‘She has been drinking three casks of wine a week, so out of $100 you tell me what she is eating.’’

Carr said the flats were the clients’ homes and alcohol was not prohibited, as long as it was used moderately and did not create disturbances to the service, clients or the wider community.

Shepherd said her mother was not being supported in her new home, as ‘‘she just stays in bed drinking and smoking cigarettes all day. That’s all she does’’.

‘‘It sounds, bad but I’ve spent my whole life being the parent. It is time for me to put my life together but I’m having to deal with this because the people that are meant to be helping me aren’t doing their jobs.’’