A Scots carer has been struck off after telling colleagues that vulnerable clients “should be in a straitjacket until 9am”.
Michelle Brown, who was employed by The Richmond Fellowship Scotland Ltd, was reported to the Scottish Social Services Council over a series of offensive remarks that caused “emotional harm” to clients.
A panel heard how Brown, of Glasgow, told a colleague on September 28, 2023, that she believed that vulnerable clients should be locked in ‘straitjackets’ until 9am and when questioned added: “Can these guys not get drugs to make them sleep till at least 9am”.
On October 28 of the same year, Brown told a client: “I’ll wash the windows with that” when speaking about their football team top.
While supporting an autistic, non-verbal client, the SSSC heard Brown turned off the lights and closed the living room door to make them go to sleep multiple times on the same day. The regulator found that she did not follow the client’s step-by-step support instructions, which caused “unnecessary agitation”.
Glasgow Live reports that between September 14 and November 6, Brown is known to have fallen asleep multiple times while supporting clients.
While employed as a Healthcare Assistant at The Nursing Partnership on July 14, last year, she said “he’d be better going to sleep and never waking up”, while in earshot of another client.
Brown then boasted to a bariatric client who is confined to her bed that she is on a weight loss drug. When the client asked where she got them she told her that she wouldn’t be able to get them as she was “always in bed and not exercising”.
In a report, the SSSC said: “Social care workers are expected to treat the vulnerable people in their care with dignity and respect, to care for them with compassion and to protect them from any harm. Your comments made about, and in some cases directed towards or in the presence of those vulnerable people, are abusive, derogatory and dismissive, raising serious concerns about your attitude to vulnerability.
“Where the vulnerable people were present at the time you made these comments, you placed them all at risk of emotional harm. On one occasion you caused AA emotional harm.
“Your conduct in trying to get BB to settle and go to bed far earlier than his support plan instructed, shows a serious disregard for BB’s rights and wishes, and also caused him emotional harm. Such conduct heightens the concerns about your attitude to vulnerability and shows a serious lack of compassion in your work.
“Sleeping on shift also shows a disregard for the vulnerable people who relied on you for their basic support and personal care. You were trusted to work alongside a colleague to meet the needs of those individuals and your conduct placed them, and your colleagues, at risk of physical harm.
“Overall, your conduct appears very uncaring and fails to place any of the vulnerable people at the heart of your work. When taken together, the pattern of similar and serious behaviour was an abuse of the trust placed in you by those vulnerable people and their families.
“Given the pattern of behaviour and your lack of insight, we consider that there are public protection and public interest concerns that need to be addressed.”
In their judgement, the SSSC removed Michelle Brown from the social care register.
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