so mom Diana Pepin had her fears that something was happening to her incapacitated mother behind the walls of her nursing home so she installed a camera at first what she saw was reassuring this is the PSW has taken care of mom for several years she's having an interaction with my father she's showing how well she dresses mom she color coordinates for it sounds caring very nice the socks are matching the nightgown it sounds good but as soon as Diana's dad leaves that nice talk disappears no what makes you don't trust people I said you know
what it just makes you not trust your own judgment sometimes when you think people are okay the personal support worker in the video was fire but there are plenty more cases like this across Ontario a review of hundreds of government incident reports found residents had been physically assaulted by staff when they requested to have their adult diapers changed another resident was left in a badly soiled State for two hours by staff intentionally we told elder advocate Jamie tiss about some of those reports we found a PSW a personal support worker returning to work after an
allegation of abuse without any further training another incident of resident to resident sexual abuse and then finally resident to resident abuse that took place while the staff were asleep are these isolated or do you hear about things like that all the time I hear about these things all the time we hear stories of people being illegally detained of being left in bed for days filthy conditions cockroaches assault indeed the reports show a surge in incidents between staff and residents reported by nursing homes from almost 900 in 2011 to about 2200 in 2016 when problems are
reported it can take months for officials to send an inspector we still have a huge backlog and I think we still have a big problem because their inspectors they're not investigators so now when staff come to her room Diana Pepin keeps watch a safeguard against abuse in a home that was built for care David Coleman CBC News Ottawa now David's story is your first look at a major investigation into the crisis and elder care in the weeks to come you'll see in-depth coverage coverage on CBC's marketplace and here on the national it's the scope of
the problems the calls for accountability so tonight let's focus on the staff on the front lines and what happens when trouble strikes Market Place found that in just one year there were two thousand one hundred and ninety eight reported incidents of staff on Resident abuse in Ontario long-term care homes this means on average six seniors abused every day now many of the staff in those homes are personal support workers that's a demanding job that pays relatively little about 18 to 21 dollars an hour they're not recognized as regulated health professionals in Ontario they're not certified
and there's no governing body regulating practicing PSWs currently any PSW in the province of Ontario can abuse they can steal and if they're not formally charged by the police they can leave that place of work walk down the street and get hired another long-term care facility and that exact scenario has played out remember this video in Ontario a few years ago some support workers were caught on camera one waving feces in a residents face another blowing his nose on her sheets well at least one of those people is still employed as a personal support worker
so how can anyone check up on who is caring for their loved ones Ontario did have an online registry of more than 35,000 PSWs two years ago it quietly dismantled it over complaints it contained unverified information the government promised a replacement to be phased in starting now but there's nothing available to the public yet
