It’s everyone’s DUTY to spy on their parents’ carers
Brenda hid a camera in her frail mother’s care home. The horrors she witnessed have convinced her...
Arriving at the care home just before lunch on Mother’s Day, Brenda Hibberd walked into her mum’s room expecting to see her up, dressed and sitting comfortably, looking forward to a roast dinner.
But the scene that greeted her couldn’t have been more at odds with those expectations of a special day with 95-year-old Elsie reeves, still fiercely proud despite her frail health and worsening dementia.
‘Mum was so upset and confused,’ recalls Brenda, 65. ‘She told me: “i’ve had no breakfast, no one’s been in to see me.” instead of being taken to the toilet, she had been left to lie all morning in her own urine.
‘i pressed the buzzer. When a carer came in, i said: “Mum says she’s had no breakfast.” They told me, “Oh, she was asleep”.
‘Then i asked: “Why is she still in bed in her nightie at lunchtime?” They said they’d been busy dealing with another resident who’d fallen and now they had to do lunch.
‘i said, “Can you at least get her out of bed?” When they did, she was soaked through and had to be put in the shower while her bed was stripped. it was all so wrong.’
Brenda says she raised the matter the next day with the deputy manager of Maples Care Home in Bexleyheath, Kent.
She was assured it would be fully investigated, but for peace of mind she decided to take matters into her own hands.
So on March 24 this year, Brenda put a sound-and-motion-activated spy camera, bought online for £80, in her mother’s room to secretly record her carers.
it is a tactic an increasing number of anxious relatives are resorting to — and which last week prompted Dr Peter Carter, head of the royal College of nursing, to call for the use of such devices to be banned.
He said covert filming left staff feeling they were ‘under the microscope’ and could drive them out of jobs in which they were needed.
But Brenda Hibberd disagrees. While the footage she recorded over a month-long period this year revealed no physical abuse of Elsie, it did show a sickening lack of respect from some staff, with the houseproud, dignified great-great-grandmother, who had worked hard all her life, being teased and humiliated by carers who repeatedly swore in her presence.
no wonder Brenda feels more relatives should be making use of spy cameras, especially when a loved one has dementia and may not be believed if they complain.
THE covertly filmed clips — seen by the Daily Mail — do indeed make deeply disturbing viewing.
Some employees appear genuinely caring and compassionate. But others clearly were overstretched, lacked training or were completely unsuited to the job.
On March 31, the spy camera records Elsie swinging precariously from a hoist as she is lifted from her bed because of her limited mobility. Elsie looks terrified, saying ‘Don’t drop me, don’t drop me’, then ‘i’m falling’.
A carer tells another staff member: ‘We nearly dropped her the other day, didn’t we? They caught her with their hands. Dreadful.’
On April 13, a male carer is filmed changing Elsie’s continence pad without protective gloves. He says to her in jest ‘There’s too much fat on your arse.’
in another clip, Elsie can be heard pleading to be put back to bed, begging ‘Please help me’, to be told ‘in ten minutes’. Half an hour later, she is still begging.
At 11.57am on April 14, Elsie is filmed repeatedly calling for help because she has wet herself. At 12.39pm, two carers finally arrive and both start swearing when they see the mess she is in.
in a clip dated April 18, the male carer of the ‘fat arse’ comment mocks Elsie’s stiff, jerky movements by calling her ‘Woody the f***** g Woodpecker’, while another carer laughs at his joke.
He tells another carer — in Elsie’s presence — ‘i’d love her to pieces if she weren’t such a f*****g whinger.’
nor did Brenda and her brother richard escape the contempt of some carers, who were all smiles when they visited.
Brenda heard herself referred to as ‘that miserable daughter’ or ‘the gremlin’. A male carer is recorded saying: ‘Elsie is no trouble, it’s just her bloody family.’
At one point, Brenda’s brother was referred to as ‘a pain in the arse’, and it was falsely suggested he must be an alcoholic because his face looked red.
Carers chatted on another occasion about how Elsie’s children were only after her money. The comment was hurtful and untrue. Brenda and her family had been largely footing the bill of about £1,600 a week for Elsie’s care in her own home before she moved into Maples last December.
indeed, their inheritance — Elsie’s £238,000 house in St Paul’s Cray, Kent — has been sold to fund her future care. given that Elsie’s five months in Maples Care Home, part of Churchgate Healthcare Ltd, cost nearly £25,000, the money may not last her lifetime.
‘it was heartbreaking,’ says Brenda. ‘i’d spend all afternoon at the home with Mum, then stay up until 4am watching the secret recordings, unable to tear myself away because i felt so angry.
‘it was costing £158 a day — the same as a hotel. My brother said she would have been better off in a Travelodge.
‘no one was directly rude to her or aggressive, but all those comments were made in front of her.
‘A few lovely carers were very good but some of them gave her no dignity and no proper care.
‘The worst part was, you could hear Mum almost ingratiating herself with some of them, saying “you’re a good girl” after she’d been particularly distressed.’
On May 27, Brenda moved Elsie from Maples to another care provider near the Essex home she shares with her husband Brian, 65, a supermarket supplier. At the same time she made a formal complaint to Maples Care Home, handing over a memory stick containing the recording of her mother’s care.
in a letter dated June 10, Helen Love, operations and business manager, writing on behalf of Churchgate Healthcare ( Maples) Ltd, offered ‘ our most profound and unreserved apology to Elsie, you and your family for the distress these events have caused’.
She told Brenda the incidents had been reported to the Bexley Adults Safeguarding team and that two members of staff had been dismissed, with a further two under close mentoring and supervision.
Ms Love concluded: ‘We are in the process of introducing new measures on all units which include additional training and supervision to embed good practice and to provide the highest level of service/ care to our residents.’
A meeting with the safeguarding team was held last week, but Brenda is not allowed to talk about what was discussed while
the investigation is continuing. This week, responding to the Mail’s request to discuss Elsie’s care, Helen Love emailed: ‘The company has very recently changed ownership and the new owners are not in a position to comment. The previous owners are not available for comment.’
Brenda and her three siblings thought they had chosen the best possible care home for their mother, a former cashier who has been widowed three times and has ten grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
Independent Elsie never wanted to go into care. But after an attack six years ago when masked raiders broke into her home and stole her bank card and all her jewellery, her health went into decline. Eventually, she needed a live-in day carer and separate night carer.
After she was admitted to hospital late last year, following a fall at home, the family was advised that she would be safer in a care home. The NHS paid half the cost of Elsie’s £220-a-week nursing care but none of the care home costs.
WHEN she first visited Maples, Brenda was impressed. The website boasts of ‘state-of-the-art facilities’, ‘luxurious decor’ and ‘elegant’ rooms overlooking a picturesque garden. It has an on-site hair salon and activities include gardening, baking, film matinees, bingo and excursions.
She started to have concerns shortly after Elsie moved in. She noticed the carers seemed overstretched and that there seemed to be a high turnover of managers.
In late December, Brenda spotted bruising on her mother’s arms and that the chair and commode in her room were often left dirty.
In the spring, Elsie developed a severely swollen leg, later diagnosed as deep vein thrombosis. Brenda felt that the nursing staff did not act quickly enough on this, nor on a fungal infection that affected Elsie’s toenails, nor an eye infection which left her feeling distressed and uncomfortable.
‘It seemed to me these health problems were only picked up when we mentioned it, but Mum would get upset and tell me: “Don’t you go saying anything, you’ll just make it worse.”
‘I’d always say to staff “I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining” or “I’m sorry to have to say this” because I’m aware that it is a very tough job for little pay.
‘One of them said to me, “Oh, I don’t blame you, if it was my mum I’d be doing the same”, yet behind my back he was talking about my mum’s “fat arse” and calling me “that miserable daughter”.
‘It was appalling. But at the same time you think, “Is it just me who thinks this is awful? Is this how all old people with dementia are treated? Am I over-reacting?” But clearly I wasn’t, because the home took action the minute they saw the recordings.’
In May the Care Quality Commission rated Maples Care Home “inadequate” following a spot check. This rating is now clearly displayed on the home’s website.
The Mail contacted both the new owners and the previous owners for comment on the CQC report, but as yet has received no reply.
A CQC spokeswoman told the Mail that since last October around 5,500 of England’s 17,200 care homes had so far been subject to unannounced spot checks, and that care providers were obliged to display their ratings on their websites in the interests of “transparency”.
She said ‘inadequate’ was the lowest rating and unless significant improvements were made, the CQC had the power to close a care home placed in special measures.
Brenda says: ‘Without solid evidence, complaints may not be taken seriously. I think everyone should have a camera, not just for the residents but for the staff as well, because then they’re covered.
‘If they are doing their job right, what have they got to fear?’