Two care workers have been struck off after they were caught mistreating an elderly dementia patient on a hidden camera installed by her family.
Bisola Akindein, 34, and Diana Otobohu, 39, were convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court in April after both pled guilty to a single charge of neglect.
The pair were caught after “gut instinct” made the family of 88-year-old great grandmother Jean Lochrane install a camera – hidden in a digital clock – in her bedroom at Eastbank Care Home in Shettleston, Glasgow.
They were both struck off the register by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) on November 15.
Jean, who has vascular dementia, was only in the home six weeks when her son John, 68, and his wife Angela, 60, realised something was wrong.
Jean told them people had been taking her buzzer away and said: “They are being bad to me, they are shouting at me.”
Angela said: “We had a terrible gut feeling.”
The couple placed the camera in Jean’s room and watched in horror as the events unfolded, with Akindein and Otobohu pulling Jean’s bed into the middle of the floor so she was unable to reach her nurse call alarm away.
Then she looked on as her pleas to use the toilet were ignored.
Otobohu climbed on top of Jean’s bed and pulled the alarm box from the wall. The pair also used “inappropriate handling techniques” on her as her arms were pulled.
Angela said: “Jean was screaming ‘Please God help me, someone please help me’.” The effects of what happened have been long lasting. Angela added: “You can hear it in her voice, see it in her face, she is terrified. She thinks they are coming to get her.”
The pair were slapped with 216 hours of community service after their actions came to light.
A SSSC spokesperson said: “Your actions caused the supported person distress and risked causing them both emotional and physical harm in a place where they ought to feel safest.
“The behaviour is extremely serious given it displays a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of a vulnerable person you were entrusted to look after. It was an isolated incident but if the behaviour were to be repeated, would place other vulnerable people at risk of harm.”
A spokesman for Eastbank Care Home, owned by HC-One said: “We are clear this should never have happened, and again extend our sincere apologies to Ms Lochrane and her family.”
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