216
edits
Changes
→Abuse and Neglect
==Abuse and Neglect==
The Residential Care Regulation requires an operator (licensee) to immediately report to the medical health officer (Community Licensing) if there is an allegation of abuse or neglect of a resident. ([[{{PAGENAME}}#References|2224]])
===What Do We Mean?===
In the residential care regulations, the terms “abuse” and “neglect“ have very specific meanings. These focus exclusively on harms to “persons in care “ (residents) by people who are “not persons in care“ (staff, administration, volunteers, family, strangers).
The abuse definitions specifically exclude harms by residents to other residents. These resident to resident harms are also considered important care issues and are “reportable” to Licensing; they are simply recognized as having different causes and needing different responses than do abuse or neglect situations. ([[{{PAGENAME}}#References|2325]])
“Abuse” and “neglect “in residential care generally means a deliberate intention to harm a resident, or a high degree of recklessness or indifference to the resident. Any other harms resulting from lack of understanding, poor procedures or documentation, inadequate training, or inadequate staffing are more commonly characterized as “quality of care” concerns or issues related to “non-compliance with standards”. However, the line between neglect and poor quality of care is not always clear in residential care.
* The program that provides funding for the resident, if applicable.
The operator must also complete an Incident Report Form and send it to the health authority’s community care licensing office immediately.([[{{PAGENAME}}#References|2426]])
The response to the abuse or neglect situation will depend on the type of harm and who was involved. The operator has a responsibility to investigate the allegation or the known situation. Staff if involved may be suspended, with or without pay during the investigation and in some cases may be fired, although if unionized, they may grieve the response. If a matter is a crime, facility operators are expected to call the police.
* situations have not been adequately investigated internally by the operator or externally by oversight bodies.
There is no provision in the residential care regulations, the privacy, consent or substitute decision laws that specifically permits or prohibits this covert surveillance. There are distinctions in law between video surveillance in the workplace by the employer and video surveillance in the person’s home by those with the authority to consent, as well as video surveillance to detect crime. ([[{{PAGENAME}}#References|2527]]) There are also distinctions made between overt and covert surveillance. If an operator tried to prohibit these efforts by family or others, it would most likely lead to greater concern (“What are they trying to hide?”).
The use of this type of video surveillance raises a wide variety of legal issues related to the:
* Is there a more effective and less intrusive way of meeting these concerns?
Use of video surveillance in the privacy of a resident’s room may or may not lead to greater resident freedom from abuse or neglect. The issue of whether videotaped surveillance put in place by family can be used as legal evidence is beginning to come before the criminal courts and administrative bodies. ([[{{PAGENAME}}#References|2628]])
==Resident to Resident Harms==