After receiving tips and complaints detailing abuse and cruelty to the elderly, we decided to go undercover in a home enviorment to see what would happen if we hired home health care agencies to provide in home care.

We enlisted the help of an 82 year old senior. He readily volunteered, in the hope that this story would make a difference for other seniors facing abuse.

We rented an apartment in a medium income San Diego neighborhood.  We equipped all four rooms (except the bathroom) with state-of-the-art hidden cameras, to record seamlessly any and all actions of our senior and the care givers hired to take care of him.  We contacted and hired from the yellow pages four companies to provide his care.  We posed as our seniors family.  The caregivers were instructed to make sure our senior took his medications on time and in the right quanity. 

This was very important because he really is diabetic. Meals were to be prepared on time and cooked or prepared from a simple menu selection of food our senior is allowed to eat as a diabetic and also likes. The requests of the caregivers was routine; change the bed linens and wash, basic clean and straighten up of the apartment, make sure that their patients needs for comfort and cleanliness are met.

When we signed up and paid for each service, we were assured by the supervisor (an RN) that all needs and basic services would be preformed as well as any other requests our senior might have. What happened next was almost unbelievable.

Without exception, we experienced almost identical abuse- both mental and some physical from all of our care givers. Matty, our first care giver had within the first five days, subjected our senior to the following. The others followed shortly behind.

1. Matty threatened to slap our senior for calling her from the adjoining room several times.

2. Matty verbally berated and abused our senior while he was attempting to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. He had an unfortunate accident and did not make it completely to the toilet. Some fecal matter fell on the floor. The care giver exploded in a blind rage and refused to clean up anything. She also refused to give a sponge bath to her patient to remove the fecal matter. She let her patient stay in bed in an unsanitary condition, making him uncomfortable and miserable. She then made a call on our cordless phone to her agency, screaming at the top of her lungs in front of our bewildered senior berating his condition, calling him nasty and threatening to quit if she was required to take care of cleaning him.
This man who in younger days had been the president of a large national corporation respected by hundreds of employees was now reduced to tears by this cruel and thoughtless care giver.

3. Three of the five care givers were thieves. They stole our seniors cash, Jewelery, and food. One even stole cleaning products from under the sink.

4. All care givers plopped themselves down on the couch in the living room, watched TV and made calls to their family, friends and boyfriends (some Long distance calls billed to our seniors phone) while our senior called out from the bedroom asking for food, medications and help turning over. Most of the requests for help went unanswered.

5. By far Matty was the most egregious and cruel of the bunch. She also was the biggest thief. She stole cash, jewelery and food right out of our seniors refrigerator and placed the food in grocery bags to take to her home. She ate everything she could while she was on duty (against her agencys rules) and robbed our senior of all his cleaning products from under the kitchen sink ( approx $20.00 worth of supplies).
Of course Matty had no idea that all of her actions were being recorded on video tape. She had no idea that she was about to come face with our investigative reporters.

We edited excerpts from the weeks of video tape and compiled a summery of each of the egregious acts she committed against her patient, including the cash, jewelry, and personal belongings she stole from our senior.

She was not prepared to see a camera crew and Investigative Reporter, Jennifer Hersey when she opened the door of her apartment. What she did expect to see was the driver from the airport shuttle service she had called to take her to the airport as she was in a rush to leave to go to the Philippines (we suspect she may have found one of our hidden cameras).

We showed her the tape of her abuse and theft. She turned several alternating shades of red. She admitted to abusing her patient. She said she was under too much stress and she said that she takes it out on her patients when the stress is too much.
We asked if the stress was causing her to steal? At first she tried to deny that she had stolen anything. When we played the tape for her she demanded we leave or she would call the police. We suggested she call 911 as we wanted our seniors belongings and cash and jewelery back to return to him. We reminded her that the police would be an excellent choice to recover our stolen goods.

She asked us to wait a minute. She came back with several bags of food, cleaning products, towels (from the bathroom, we didn't know about them until she produced them), jewelery etc.

Our reporter asked for the cash back. She said she had spent it for her trip, but upon return from her trip, she would make arrangements to immediately pay our senior back. As of this writing, we have never heard from her again.

While the agencies say they run background checks, in fact most do not. Ads are run in small weekly newspapers and in the online job forums. Having the ability to pay, is no guarantee that you get great care, but its a great place to start. Hiring caregivers who have at least an LVN License means that they have at least a basic nursing education and the mindset of a caregiver.

Hiring agencys who employ off the street people with dubious backgrounds and education is a recipe for disaster. Ask your self this one question. When I was a helpless infant, would my parents have placed my life and care in the hands of someone they knew nothing about and hope for the best? Probably not.

Given what you have learned from our experiences with caregivers you may want to take a closer look at who you allow to care for the elderly people in your family. Show your children how and why you choose who will be the care giver for the elderly in your family. Make sure they that you leave no stone unturned as you investigate the credentials and personal background of the person who will be allowed to care for your loved ones. The day will come that they will have the responsibility to find some one who will help care for you. Teach them well.