Petition launched calling for CCTV to be installed in all care homes
Care activist group, Your Voice Matters, has launched a petition calling for CCTV to be installed in all care homes.
Founder of Your Voice Matters, Jenny Moore, believes the only way to prevent abuse occurring such as that exposed on Panorama, is through installing CCTV which would be managed by an independent body.
Ms Moore said: “The word of a relative or good care worker can often be dismissed by care providers, Care Quality Commission, social services, NHS etc, often with disastrous consequences. Relatives may end up being victimised or even banned. Care workers can be bullied or at worse lose their jobs.”
She added: "It may be questioned about the privacy of the residents themselves. If I was a resident in a care home, I would be much happier to know my safety was being observed rather than me being neglected and/or abused.
"I would not want my family to have the worry that many families are experiencing today, their lives taken over by a care system they have no power to fight, when they should be spending quality time with me and sharing my final years in peace.
"Prisoners, small children in nurseries, even the public are all protected by CCTV, so why are our elderly and vulnerable not?”
A debate on the issue of CCTV in care homes can be found at www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/2/should-there-be-ctv-in-care-homes
The petition can be signed by going to www.gopetition.com/petitions/cctv-in-all-care-nursing-and-residential-homes.html
Adapted from: article by Sue Learner at http://www.carehome.co.uk