VIDEO: Barbados up in arms over elderly woman being mistreated by caregivers

Barbadian authorities and the wider population have condemned the actions of a local nursing aide who was recently videotaped abusing an elderly woman in her care.

In the minute-long video, the aide is seen hitting, kicking and verbally abusing an elderly woman who is seated on the floor, as at least two other women look on – one of whom is filming the incident, all the while laughing and mocking the woman below them.

It appears that the scene took place at a nursing home in the parish of Christ Church.

The graphic and disturbing scenes were captured in a video which has since gone viral on social network streams in the Caribbean – as President of the Barbados Nurses’ Association (BNA), Blondelle Mullin, appeals for better supervision of nursing homes.

Mullin told Loop News Barbados, “We do not encourage or promote that kind of behaviour. It is very disturbing. I hope that is not the norm!”

She also disclosed that she has received word and an assurance that the relevant authorities and Ministries are looking into the matter.

In a radio interview Tuesday morning, Social Care Minister in Barbados, Steve Blackett, said that he would be asking the Minister of Health and the Chairman of the National Assistance Board to investigate. "We cannot have this kind of thing existing in Barbados," he emphasised. "I could not believe my eyes when I saw that!"

Mullin took pains to explain that people need to recognise that every “nurse” is not a nurse, and they should therefore not lump all caregivers together. She explained that the person in the video could be a nursing auxiliary or a health aide, who would not undergo the extensive training completed by a registered nurse.

“They are not nurses,” she reiterated.

She told Loop News that there must be greater policing of the island’s nursing homes, since, more alarmingly, there is the possibility that the caregiver seen on the video is not even trained to any extent.

“It might not even be somebody that is trained. You know people just hire people and they work there [in the nursing home], but we don’t know if they were ever trained or not,” she contended.

“The ministry has started to train the nursing auxiliaries and they have to go for a six-month training, but I don’t know that all the persons that work in nursing homes are trained, although they should be,” Muliin added.

She lamented, “People are doing things that they are not supposed to do. Persons at these places are supposed to hire only trained people, and even when people hire... people who are trained, they sometimes do things that they shouldn’t do. People should monitor people and make sure they are doing the right thing.”

Since catching wind of the incident an investigation has since been launched, and Chairman of the National Assistance Board, Senator David Durant led an emergency meeting at the facility.