Advocacy group to protest over Government's 'repeated failures' on nursing home residents

'There is no sign of reform and very little has changed from the experiences of families at the height of the pandemic to families when things go wrong today,' Care Champions founder Majella Beattie said

A group advocating for families and loved ones in nursing homes is to protest at Leinster House on Tuesday to highlight repeated failures which continue to "inflict unnecessary suffering” on residents.

Care Champions has supported 8,000 families and some 200 nursing home staff members over the past three years. It is calling for a series of actions which would improve the rights of those in nursing homes.

Speaking ahead of the demonstration, Care Champions founder Majella Beattie said no lessons had been learned from the covid-19 pandemic.

“There is no sign of reform and very little has changed from the experiences of families at the height of the pandemic to families when things go wrong today,” she said.

The group said it had tried to engage with the Government “to no avail”, with families left with no answers, “fractured and frozen”, and unable to move on.

Truth-telling process

The group is calling for a “truth-telling process” which would see families who were bereaved receive access to all records from private facilities.

“They need to know that what their loved one went through, and know that it won’t happen to anyone else,” she said.

The group is prioritising five key asks, including implementing a care partner scheme, where a specially trained family member or friend would be seen as a partner in care.

A similar scheme is already in place in the North, where a nominated person can engage in meaningful social interactions to maintain good mental health, regardless of an outbreak, once the care partner tests negative.

“Today, if there are outbreaks in various parts of the country, we have families waving in windows so we are still denying residents and loved ones the right to be with their families, we’re still isolating people who have already gone through a traumatic number of years,” Ms Beattie said.

The group is also calling for a mandatory reporting process to be implemented which would allow staff to “speak up safely” on any concerns within a nursing home.

Adult safeguarding legislation

Meanwhile, Ms Beattie said the lack of adult safeguarding legislation in Ireland must be addressed, noting that in May 2020, the Government signed a statement of support to the UN secretary general which recognised the increased risk to those living in nursing homes.

The statement committed to fully promoting and respecting the dignity and rights of older people and to mitigate the negative impacts during and after the covid-19 pandemic on their health, lives, rights and wellbeing.

Despite this, the Adult Safeguarding Bill 2017 has been before the Seanad since March 2017, with no progress since March 2021.

Separately, Ms Beattie said families had not been engaged with “in any shape or form” by the Government concerning a public inquiry that was signalled last January by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

“We want to be involved in the drafting of the terms of reference and we want victims to be at the heart of this so that real lessons can be learned. We are not interested in and will not participate in or accept a tokenistic inquiry,” she said.