Aged care royal commission: Daughter of elderly man calls for room surveillance

Bruising, bed sores and foot infections prompted call from daughter of elderly man.

Nursing home residents should have video surveillance in their rooms to ensure their safety, says the daughter of an elderly man physically assaulted by a carer.

Noleen Hausler was giving evidence on the first day of a five-day hearing in Perth by the Royal Commission into Aged Care.

The commission was shown video footage of Ms Hausler’s ­father, Clarence, being abused by male carer Corey Lyle Lucas, who appeared at one point to be trying to suffocate the 89-year-old with a serviette held over his face.

Ms Hausler told the hearing she had installed a tiny video camera in her father’s room at the Mitcham Residential Care home in Adelaide in August 2015 after she noticed “unusual bruising”, bed sores and foot infections. She said his demeanour had also changed. “At different times he’d have tears in his eyes, which was unusual for Dad … he just shut down.”

The footage, which royal commissioner Richard Tracey warned was “very confronting”, showed Lucas violently force-feeding Mr Hausler with a spoon, hitting his nose and holding down his arm. Lucas was subsequently convicted of aggravated assault.

A female carer was also seen pulling him by the arm across the bed before feeding him. But the royal commission heard the rough handling — which must be reported within 24 hours — was not disclosed until the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner demanded information nearly three months later.

Ms Hausler laid a formal complaint days after viewing the footage, captured over eight days. She said she had a “gut feeling … of ­silent misconduct (toward) residents who are non-verbal”. Other relatives had told her of similar concerns for their loved ones.

But she said after she went to the police with the recorded video material, the nursing home’s proprietor, Japara Healthcare, had accused her of illegally spying on its staff and breaching the Privacy Act, the Aged Care Act and Video Surveillance Act.

Counsel assisting Peter Rozen QC asked Japara’s quality manager, Diane Jones, whether she had been asked to provide evidence to undermine Ms Hausler’s bid to obtain guardianship to further protect her father.

He put it to Ms Jones she had been asked by her superior, Julie Reed, to gather evidence of Ms Hausler’s actions that might suggest she “puts her father at risk”.

Ms Jones agreed she had sent back a list of incidents, with the message “there are not as many as I’d hoped, unfortunately”.

Mr Rozen put it to her that such comments suggested there was “almost a war going on” against Ms Hausler.

He said a “not friendly” email sent to Ms Hausler warning her that videoing staff carried serious penalties was “spectacularly ­unhelpful” in Japara’s claim to want to repair the relationship with her.

“It’s not consistent with building good relationships with someone whose father had been assaulted several times, is it?” Mr Rozen said.

Ms Hausler told the royal commission that some nursing staff had referred to her as the “smiling assassin”.

“If a lesson can be learned, it is that resident-centred care means everyone’s voice must be heard and respected,” she told the ­commission.

She said video cameras were the only way of protecting residents like her father, who died in January 2017. “I believe extremely vulnerable loved ones in care ­deserve ­additional protection in their private rooms,” she said.