Question

11. Read the case study, then answer the questions that follow.

Case study

Colleen is a 60-year-old woman who has an acquired brain injury (ABI) brought on by excessive alcohol consumption after her husband left her. Colleen’s ability to understand personal space and appropriate touching is affected by her ABI. She has been residing in an aged care home for six months. Colleen has started entering the rooms of men and climbing into bed with them. Management decide to move her to the memory support wing (secure facility for people in the latter stages of dementia); however, Colleen continues with her behaviour of concern. Management then requests that her doctor prescribes medication that will help staff manage her behaviour. Once Colleen starts on the medication, she becomes very sleepy and stays in her room all day. She also starts to lose weight because she often sleeps through meal times.

Questions

1. Have Colleen’s human rights been breached?
2. Are there any risks or indicators of abuse or neglect of Colleen?
3. Are there any indicators that Colleen has been sexually abused and why or why not?
4. Are there any indicators that Colleen is being financially abused?
5. Does a support worker have a duty of care to report the abuse?
6. What information would the worker report to their supervisor if they suspect abuse or neglect?
7. If Colleen was lucid and decided she wanted to access other services, how could you assist her?
8. If Colleen was lucid, how could you support her to make a complaint?

  

Answer 1

●Collens's human rights has been breached here because the principle of autonomy cannot be followed because of unsound mind but at the same time the management cannot advice for chemical restraint without any legal consent if the patient has no relatives .

●The risk here is sedating a patient, this overtime can turn into abuse for thr particular drug by the patient, her weight loss is because of the negligence in feeding her at the meal time.

●There are no indicator of  risk for any sexual abuse in the patient as the patient is instable because of ABI and rather climbs on other men's bed.

●There are no specific indicators that Colleen is financially abused.As she is in aged care center but there are very high risk for this abuse because of her loneliness or no family members.

●Abuse can be reported by anybody, if it is a support worker who comes across any physical or chemical abuse has to be reported immediately ro the concerned center.