Oakden nursing home scandal whistleblowers: Fight for justice that left the Spriggs family reeling
UPDATE: Revelations of abuse and mistreatment at Oakden nursing home has shocked and disgusted families of patients.
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REVELATIONS of abuse and mistreatment at Oakden nursing home has shocked and disgusted families of patients.
Glynde retiree Jim Leppa, 83, regularly visits his wife Maria who has been in the care of staff at the Oakden facility for the past five years.
Mr Leppa said his wife has had “no trouble” while there, and he had no suspicion of the allegations uncovered in the independent report, released yesterday.
The findings of abuse and mistreatment of dementia patients upset Mr Leppa.
Today visited his wife but said he was not given any information about her future care.
“It’s a shock to me, I just came in and they’re telling us they’re going to close, it’s terrible,” he said.
“I don’t know what I can do. It’s very concerning.”
Maria Leppa, 76, has been treated for dementia at Oakden for the past five years.
However, her condition began to deteriorate six months ago.
Mr Leppa said today Maria was “not too good” and had progressively lost her ability to stand and communicate.
“It’s very difficult,” he said.
Yesterday, the family who blew the whistle on abuse at the facility said they are considering legal action and say no one in their right mind would now want to leave a loved one there.
Bob Spriggs was a patient at the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service last February where he received overdoses of medicine and displayed bruising consistent with heavy restraint.
Mr Spriggs has since died, but the treatment he received was a catalyst for the investigation — which on Thursday concluded with a scathing report and the facility’s closure.
The late 66-year-old’s wife, Barb Spriggs, said on Thursday the centre had to be closed.
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She added: “With all that has gone on in the last nine months it would be very hard for (the centre) to continue to exist in its current form.
“There has been so much publicity on it, and so much has been covered that nobody in their right mind in SA would want to be putting their loved in there now.
“The matter needs to go forward.”
Mr Spriggs’ son, Clive Spriggs, said the facility was not equipped to handle patients who needed high levels of care.
The family said they have been given a summary of the report, were horrified by the findings and would sit down to go through the lengthy document together.
Mrs Spriggs said legal action was being considered as they reviewed the report.
“We haven’t had any private time among ourselves yet to digest it all or talk about it,” she said.
Aged care and mental health experts Neil and Carla Baron performed an evaluation on the centre in 2008 following a sanction by the Federal Government.
They observed first-hand the abuse of patients and eventually resigned because no action was going to be taken to fix it.
“It is shocking that it has been allowed to continue this long,” Ms Baron said.