Society's belief that older people cannot be sexually abused must change, report warns
The A ‘emily’ Reports An Rape Follow Nursing Hse Woman Elderly Home April The Two In Of In 2020
Irish society does not believe older people can be sexually abused in the same way people in the past did not believe children were being abused in institutions and this must change, the HSE’s National Independent Review Panel (NIRP) has warned in a hard-hitting report.
A second report, also published on Wednesday, notes “reasonable grounds for concern in relation to physical or sexual abuse” of 21 elderly residents in one nursing home were found by a HSE safeguarding team.
The two reports follow the rape of an elderly woman ‘Emily’ in a HSE nursing home in April 2020, for which a male healthcare assistant was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
On behalf of Emily’s family, the HSE asks all commentators to focus on the issues and not her personal circumstances.
HSE chief Bernard Gloster said the HSE failed Emily.
“I want to again restate publicly our most sincere apologies to Emily’s family. In the place she should have felt most safe she came to the greatest harm,” he said.
“Our apology will not take away the trauma and distress both she and they have endured. I am very grateful to them for meeting me recently and allowing me the opportunity to apologise in person on behalf of the HSE.”
The NIRP team believe, they said, a key issue in this case was that staff could not believe sexual abuse would occur in their place of work.
“This is despite the fact that the NIRP have information from a number of sources that a number of residents on occasions displayed signs and symptoms of possible sexual abuse,” they said.
They warned: “This issue runs much deeper than just training and speaks to a general societal disbelief that sexual abuse does not happen to older people.”
The report goes on to say: “This attitude is reminiscent of the early 1980s in Ireland when concerns around the sexual abuse of children were emerging in relation to industrial schools and the Catholic church. At that time, there were strongly held societal beliefs that this simply did not happen.”
They said now, 40 years later, there was acceptance that sexual abuse happens to children and they are better protected.
However, they added:
The NIRP report also highlights communication problems at the particular home, stating even the nurse in charge of Emily, when she came back from the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) after being raped, was not told what had happened.
The nursing home said they understood from gardaí that information should not be shared, but the NIRP is critical of how little was shared with key people.
The second review was carried out by the local Community Healthcare Office (CHO) Safeguarding Team.
They said the 21 concerns around physical or sexual abuse have been referred to gardaí, and the HSE team is investigating two further allegations of psychological abuse at this home alone.
“The learning from this review suggests that abuse of older persons should be given greater priority with a specific focus on the recognition and reporting of sexual abuse in older adults,” the team said.
They made five recommendations, including that the HSE National Safeguarding Office review the content of its training programmes to focus more on recognition of sexual abuse.
They recommended improved record-keeping and across all community nursing homes said: “clear supervision structures” were needed.
They also said “the development of adult safeguarding legislation and national policy should be progressed”. Advocates have long-highlighted delays in this area.
Relatives and residents in nursing homes should be given a proper induction, including information on how to raise complaints.