The treatment of elderly people – including those with dementia – at the hands of their ‘carers’ often falls woefully short of what we should expect. An example in today’s Daily Mail about the mistreatment of eight elderly Alzheimer’s sufferers:
Let’s pick out the individual details:
Carol Ann Moore (54) – team leader – convicted of slapping a male patient in revenge after his wife complained about a lack of activities at the home. She denied ill-treatment and neglect but was found guilty, jailed for four months.
Katie Cairns (27) – nurse – stamped on a resident’s foot, threw bean bags at residents and taunted an elderly man by pulling loose skin on his neck. She denied ill-treatment and neglect but was found guilty, jailed for five months.
Gemma Pearson (28) – nurse – tried to tip a patient out of his wheelchair when he refused to stand up. She denied ill-treatment and neglect but was found guilty, given a 12-month community order and ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work.
Darren Smith (35) – carer – threw bean bags at residents, admitted ill-treatment ahead of the trial and was jailed for eight months.
The gender-related aspects to this case:
The ill-treated Alzheimer’s sufferers whose genders are identified in the article were all male.
Only the man (the most junior of the four members of staff) had the personal integrity to admit ill-treatment ahead of the trial, yet he still received the stiffest sentence of the four.
