Nursing Home Workers Accused of Taking Nude Photos of Patients Won’t Be Charged
No criminal charges are going to be filed against three nursing home workers accused of using their cell phones to take nude pictures of patients. Prosecutors say that they don’t believe a crime was committed. However, the state’s department of health is still looking into the matter.
The nursing home, Kitsap Health & Rehabilitation Center, fired the employees. One of the nurses claims that although they took funny pictures of patients and sent them to one another, they did not take photographs that were inappropriate. Two of the workers have said they have been wrongly accused
Another nursing home worker reported the alleged pictures. Police say the photographs were deleted before they were able to get access to the phones.
Nursing Home Abuse
It is wrong and an act of nursing home abuse to take inappropriate and/or private photographs of nursing home patients without their consent. Unfortunately, this type of nursing home abuse has happened before. In 2007, at least three patients at Greenwood Manor were photographed in the nude. Police say it looked as if the photographs were staged. One woman spoke out when she was sent a picture of patients at the home. Her sister, a resident at the facility, was in the photo.
Last year, a nursing home received a citation because workers used their cell phones to make audio recording and take pictures of patients. The images and sounds, which were accompanied by sexual song lyrics, were reportedly taken without the patients’ permission or knowledge and sent to other nursing home workers at Pimlico Parkway. Staffers claimed that they not know what they were doing was wrong.
Also in 2009, a certified nursing assistant at Pigeon Forge Care and Rehabilitation Center was fired for using his cell phone to take photos of 12 nursing home residents in different states of undress. 47 pictures and 27 videos were taken of patients engaged in different activities.
No charges for Bremerton nursing home photos, Seattle Times, February 11, 2010
Nursing Home Employees Fired For Allegedly Taking Nude Photos Of Resident, KIRO, February 9, 2010
Related Web Resource:
National Center on Elder Abuse
