In-room surveillance of residents in long term care: it’s complicated
Abstract
Distressing images of inappropriate care of older nursing home residents on a recent RTÉ exposé of two nursing homes made appalling viewing for nursing home residents, their relatives and the population in general. There had been similar findings in 2005 in an RTÉ investigation into Leas Cross Nursing Home in Dublin, and in 2014, filming in a unit of Aras Attracta, a HSE-run facility for people with intellectual disabilities, showed residents being force-fed, slapped and kicked by carers.
Similar scandals in other countries have resulted in debates about enhanced surveillance using monitoring cameras (with or without audio) in residents’ rooms to detect the abuse and neglect of older people. Such devices (often unfortunately termed ‘granny cams’ as an echo of the ‘nanny cams’ used to monitor childcare providers) are allowed in residential care facilities under the laws of some states in the United States. Anecdotal reports suggest an increase in queries regarding monitoring cameras from families of Irish residents. Indeed, politicians and the then director general of the HSE briefly floated the idea of encouraging covert filming in the wake of the Aras Attracta scandal.
