Care Home Manager Fired After Emotional Abuse

Angela Turner, a social worker in the UK has been thrown out of the profession for the emotional abuse she gave a mentally disabled man she was suppose to be taking care of.  She would call him a “big pig” for putting what she considered to be too much food on his plate, swear at him, and even prevent the other staff from changing his bed and cleaning up his room when he accidently wet his bed.

This didn’t just go on for a short time.  It happened for four long years!  The staff at the Elms Residential Unit in South West Birmingham saw the abuse this man faced, and although some of the night staff would occasionally sneak into his room at night to clean it while Angela was sleeping nothing was really done about the abuse.  I’m wondering why, if so many of the other staff knew what was going on did they not try to do anything to stop it?  I can understand them fearing loosing their job, but why has it taken them four years to get this out in the open?

It makes me wonder how much abuse is happening in other facilities like this one around the world that no one ever knows about?  This poor man didn’t even want to come out of his room when Angela was working.  I wouldn’t want to either if I was treated that way!  Who was suppose to be monitoring things and making sure this man was being cared for in an appropriate manner?  Angela Turner herself.  Personally, I find the whole thing sickening.

Ms. Mwarge, another staff member of the facility said “It happened persistently, day-to-day. It was normal practice.”  She said this lead to other staff adopting the same manner.  This goes to show that no matter what the age peer pressure can drive people to act in different ways, but it’s no excuse for this behavior!  Just because these adults heard another adult talk to a man with learning disabilities in a way that involved swearing at him and putting him down didn’t mean they had to do that themselves.  What were they thinking?  Why didn’t they act like the adults they are suppose to be and stand up for this man?

Angela Turner has not worked as a social worker since she was dismissed by Birmingham City Council in 2008 for gross misconduct.  She was charged for the way she treated the man she was suppose to have been caring for and in addition also had charged brought against her for failing to provide supervision and team meetings, failing to carry out CRB checks on an employee, failing to enforce a no smoking policy and failing to follow up on an allegation of racism (which was racism shown from one staff member to another).

I wonder how she will react when she gets older and ends up in a care home and is treated this way by a member of staff herself?  As the old saying goes, “What goes around, comes around”.

You can read more about what happened by clicking the following links:

The Daily Mail: Nursing home manager sacked for telling disabled patient: ‘My dogs are cleaner than you’
Community Care: Care home manager struck off after displaying ‘element of cruelty’