‘Who does one believe,’ daughter asks
The daughter of a 101-year-old woman who says she was “walloped” with a towel is installing a video camera in her mother’s longterm care room.
Margaret Anthony said she and family members are taking the action, in part, because the alleged incident seems to boil down to “she-said/she-said.”
Anthony’s mother, Evelyn Dick, told a nurse who came into her room early on the morning of June 14, that she had just been walloped with a towel by a caregiver who told her to get back to bed. The elderly woman later told her daughter about the incident and said the caregiver has done the same to other residents.
Anthony has now been told an internal investigation by Extendicare Starwood long-term care home, where her mother lives, found no evidence to support the claim.
The caregiver in question has been moved to another floor, Anthony said. She was also told that the allegation would stay on the caregiver’s record.
Investigations into the alleged incident by police and by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care staff are continuing. Anthony said she was present when her mother was interviewed by a ministry investigator and her mother repeated the story about being hit in the head with a towel, adding she didn’t want to get anybody fired.
Although investigations are continuing, the case underscores potential challenges the elderly can face when they allege abuse. Graham Webb, executive director of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, says there are plenty of parallels with the #MeToo movement, which focused attention on victims of sexual assault.
“One of the parallels is the tendency to discount or disbelieve the survivor of the abuse. Sometimes older adults expect not to be believed or not to be taken seriously, and that is not what should happen,” Webb said.
Even older adults with mild-tomoderate cognitive impairment are capable of accurately reporting events, he said.
Anthony says officials with the long-term care home told her that her mother might have misconstrued a tap on her shoulder or something similar. Anthony said her mother showed her where she was hit — on the side of her head. She added it would have been impossible for her mother to be surprised from behind because her bed is against the wall and there is a bed rail.
Anthony said she believes her mother, who immediately reported the incident and clearly described what happened, despite the fact that her mother has dementia.
“It is a case of a resident with dementia versus a caregiver. Who does one believe?” Anthony wrote in an email to home management. “I believe in giving mom the benefit of the doubt.
“Without a witness, there’s no proof as to what really happened. However, there have been too many incidents of abuse within the LTC (long-term care) system as a whole that have gone unreported because residents are at the mercy of caregivers who, unwitnessed, are abusive, until one day they are exposed as the ‘bad apple.’ No one knows what goes on behind closed doors,” Anthony wrote.
She said that is why the family is installing a video camera in her mother’s room, something the home welcomed and even helped install.
Webb said many residents of long-term care homes badly need an advocate and the most vulnerable are those who have no close friends or family to speak up on their behalf. Families, he said, should be present and be interested in what is happening to their loved ones in care.
“Those who don’t have someone are much worse off than those who do.”
Sue MacGregor, administrator at the home, said in a statement that an investigation is underway and all relevant authorities have been notified of the allegations.
“We empathize with Margaret and appreciate her ongoing advocacy on behalf of her mother,” she wrote in an email to the Citizen.
“Our team at Extendicare Starwood stands united with her in this regard.”
In March, the home was found to have failed to promote zero tolerance of abuse and neglect of residents and to take proper action after housekeeping staff reported seeing a caregiver calling a resident names and handling that person, who was lying on the floor, roughly.
Anthony said she has spoken to others at the home who have installed video cameras in their loved ones’ rooms, or plan to do so.