Mum punched by resident

[Cathieg]

Hi, this is my first post.
It's been 12 hours since the care home called me.
My mum was punched in the face, unprovoked, by another "lady" with dementia.
So far, the care home has done little except call me to inform me...it's a bank holiday and "management" will be back on Tuesday.
I'm livid, frustrated, angry, sad...a whole mix of emotion.
I'm also on holiday about 6k miles away so cannot immediately visit, but family have.
Had anyone else had this happen and any advice?
I must add that I've never met the family of the other person. I've got sympathy for them, but my first duty is to the care and safety of my 90 year old mother.

 

[SeaSwallow]

Hello @Cathieg and welcome to the forum. I am sorry to read about the assault on your mum, unfortunately these things sometimes happen in care homes. This is not to undermine the understandable anger you are feeling.
The care home have a duty of care and should be raising this as a safe guarding issue, and this should be done as soon as possible regardless of it being a bank holiday. They should also be informing you of what they are doing to mitigate this happening in the future.
You, or other members of your family, could in the meantime get into contact with your local emergency social services number.
Ultimately, if you are not happy with the care homes response to the issue you could raise the issue with the CQC but I would suggest that you await the care homes response.

 

[Gosling]

Hello @Cathieg and welcome to this friendly and supportive forum from me also.

I too am so sorry to read about the assault on your Mum. Just horrible for you to hear being on holiday so far away as wll. Unfortunately, as @SeaSwallow has already said, these type of incidents do sometimes happen, but the care home should have processes and procedures in place, and safeguarding is certainly one of them. Bank holiday or not, they need to inform you how they are going to prevent this occurring again.
When a similar thing happened to my dear Mum a few years ago, the manager was extremely proactive, told me what had happened, what they were doing to protect my Mum from further similar incidents.
If you are unhappy with how the care home responds to this incident, then yes you should raise the issue with the CQC.
I hope your Mum recovers from this horrible incident, and can settle down to being well cared for in a safe setting.

 

[Sirena]

Yes, this happened to my mother a few years ago. She had a black eye. I had a call to tell me what had happened, and how they intended to safeguard my mother. When I visited a couple of days later the Manager told me the puncher had been asked to leave - I never saw her again. As others have said, these things do happen, the important thing is how the care home handle it.

 

[Toopie28]

I'm so, so sorry. I know the stress of being far way and having to deal with this as well. You just feel so helpless.
I know when things happen to Ma I'm just all over the place.
As much as it's horrible and painful, as others have said - it happens.
As long as this is the first and hopefully last. It's important to find out what they are going to do about it and you will on Tuesday.

 

[Collywobbles]

Thinking of you here, as well.

I know it’s little comfort, but it’s likely that your poor Mum won’t remember the incident. I suspect she’s been less affected than you, emotionally.

I hope you get a satisfactory answer from the care home tomorrow. As others have said, it’s difficult to prevent entirely in that environment, but I hope that more can be done.