Let’s spot the bully among carers

PARTS of the Leas Cross nursing home report make frightening reading. It has a chilling echo of another time in Ireland when life went on as normal outside the industrial schools that contained and facilitated the living nightmare of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Though we have hopefully moved on since then, it is evident bullies and abusers are still out there. Today, it is senior citizens who in many cases find themselves at the mercy of cruelty or neglect, as evidenced by the Leas Cross scandal and other exposés.

Relatives of all people who reside in nursing homes or sheltered housing complexes should ensure that their loved ones are being well looked after. Both forms of care are open to abuse, and have been abused.

I am aware of a case where a lady in sheltered housing was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. She was not believed at first, and it was only when independent eyewitnesses came forward that the bullying ceased.

Just as many Christian Brothers and nuns were decent people, in spite of the image presented by an abusive minority, so also are the majority of carers completely above board in their work.

Sadly, there does appear to be a small number of carers who seem unwilling or unable to treat elderly people with the respect and consideration they deserve.

It is up to all of us to help protect the human rights of those who have reached the autumn of their lives. We can’t wait around for undercover TV reporters to catch the offenders. Our own vigilance is required.

Old age awaits most of us, God willing. Any of us could spend some time in a nursing home or sheltered housing. So this issue concerns every man, woman and child in the country. Having failed to tackle the horrors of a darker Ireland, can we now afford to look away when another group of citizens could be victims of institutional abuse?

John Fitzgerald

Lr Coyne Street

Callan

Co Kilkenny