Rostrevor scandal - Symptoms of a deeper malaise

WE were naive to imagine that the scandal surrounding Leas Cross Nursing Home meant we need not be so fearful about how older people, our parents, maybe uncles or aunts, maybe neighbours or friends, might be abused in a nursing home.

We were naive to believe that we, and more especially the supervisory authorities, had learnt the hard lessons and that no one would be abused or mistreated in an Irish nursing home again but we were wrong. The terribly sad, shocking revelations about the Rostrevor Nursing Home, in the affluent Dublin suburb of Rathgar, chastises us all, reminding us that we can never be less than demanding and vigilant when a vulnerable person is entrusted to the care of others.

It is a shaming indictment that we cannot rely on service providers to observe standards of decency, honesty and dignity when they take on the responsibility of caring for people made dependent by age or the death of a lifelong partner.