She wanted someone to take care of her dementia-ridden father. Instead, he was abused by the very person assigned to take care of him.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 29, 2019. It has since been updated.
Growing up, your parents did everything in their power to take care of you. Now, as an adult, you want to ensure your parents are well taken care of, but you know you can't possibly provide the best care yourself. So, you send them to a care home, trusting that the professionals there would be able to keep them happy and healthy.
Noleen Hausler, who did the same, just couldn't shake off the feeling that all wasn't well with her 89-year-old father Clarence Hausler, whom she'd admitted to one of Australia's biggest aged care providers. Following her gut, she installed a hidden camera in his bedroom and found something that shocked her to her very core, according to Metro UK.
The video showed Corey Lucas, an employee, violently abusing her father. In the footage, he can be seen force-feeding Clarence, grabbing his arms and holding a napkin over his face while aggressively twisting his nose.
Noleen caught the sickening abuse of her dementia-affected and bedridden father in September 2015 at Mitcham Residential Care Facility in Adelaide, which was operated by Japara Healthcare.
Taking the footage to the police, Lucas was jailed on counts of aggravated assault. Noleen, a nurse herself, shared this heart-breaking story as part of a case study at the aged care royal commission in Perth.
She said, "Being confronted with the visual images, I went into a state of shock and total concern for my father. My heart was racing (and) my hands were shaking." She also said, "I had no idea that someone could possibly do that. I felt for dad in the fact that I didn't protect him sufficiently."
According to the Daily Mail, Noleen was in tears as she gave evidence at the hearing about her father, who spent about 13 years at the 38-bed facility. It was found that over eight days, he was physically assaulted twice by Lucas and once by an agency employee.
The distraught daughter had previously complained about her father being poorly handled by carers days before Lucas was caught on camera. However, she was then slapped with accusations about her illegally spying on staff before she was finally taken seriously.
Noleen's father passed away in January 2017 and she did mention that while some of the staff were genuinely compassionate, she believed that Japara was following a more "profit-driven attitude". "I believe that my father's quality of life suffered as a direct result of management's culture," she said. "I believe extremely vulnerable loved ones in care, who mirror my father's diminished capacity to speak or defend themselves, deserve additional protection in their private rooms."
Commissioner Richard Tracey thanked Noleen for opening up about her "terrible experiences" to help the commission understand the lack of care that happens occasionally. To reporters, Noleen clarified that placing CCTV cameras in rooms was a "no brainer" as it would ensure people were protected. She even stated that her father was not the only one at the mercy of abusive care workers.
"(It's) very much a widespread problem in the sector ... it happens all behind closed doors," she said. "These are the most vulnerable people ... they can't speak, they can't raise the alarm." Thankfully, Lucas was not let off. Pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, he resigned. But unfortunately, he served only three weeks of a ten-month sentence behind bars.
It is stories like these that make you want to look for a way to keep your aged parents close to you so that they never have to suffer torture at the hands of strangers who just don't care.
Watch the full video here:
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/daughter-catches-carer-camera-trying-17206880
