The health board has praised the family of a severely intellectually disabled boy who raised allegations their son was being assaulted by a support worker.
Linda Pearl Ericson, 62, was yesterday found guilty of three of the six charges she faced of assaulting the then 16-year-old boy in her care. It was a re-trial after a jury last year was unable to come to a unanimous decision.
A jury of seven women and five men took about eight hours yesterday to reach its verdicts.
It was unable to reach unanimous decisions on five charges, but reached majority verdicts on the charges.
Ericson was remanded on bail for sentencing on June 26.
Ericson was the team leader in charge of the Stoke home which cared for the boy.
The boy cannot speak and has a severe intellectual disability, including Down syndrome and autism. He needs care from two support workers around the clock and is one of the most highly supported individuals in New Zealand. He can get aggressive, so carers are trained in non-violent crisis intervention.
The boy shifted from home to the house in 2009 and the Crown alleged during the two-day trial Ericson assaulted the boy soon after he shifted to the house.
Ericson denied the assaults and said her co-workers made them up.
The home was run by the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board's Intellectual Disability Support Services.
During the trial the Crown said Ericson had hit and kicked the boy and had pulled his hair a number of times - including one time when she pulled him across the carpet by his hair.
The jury agreed the boy was assaulted by Ericson at Rabbit Island, and on another occasion, and that she had pulled his hair a number of times.
Four of Ericson's co-workers testified that there was a work culture in IDSS where people were afraid to speak out and incident forms they filled out about the assaults went missing.
Disability Support Services general manager Keith Rusholme said yesterday the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board was grateful to the family of this client for continuing to raise the allegations of abuse within the service.
This had led to a thorough investigation and found the gaps in the system that the NMDHB have now corrected.
The health board carried out an independent review of IDSS last year.
That review revealed a culture where staff were afraid of laying complaints.
Staff also spoke of a culture that included bullying, confusion and a lack of professional standards.
The review said there was urgent need to manage the issues raised and recommended a management plan to deal with issues and to prepare for future service arrangements. The DHB is moving away from being directly responsible for providing disability support services.
It has more than 40 homes in Nelson where residents with disabilities are looked after.
Mr Rusholme said the management plan recommended in the review had been finalised and, of the 28 required actions in the management plan, 12 have been completed.
He said IDSS staff were responding very positively to the changes and were clearly providing good service to the people IDSS supported in their own homes.
He said the health board was very appreciative of how the service had responded to the challenges identified by the external report.
"We have zero tolerance for abuse within the service."
Changes the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board has undertaken include: Abuse and neglect policies have been reviewed and revised training and a new staff orientation programme that includes these updates is being carried out.
The reporting system review is almost complete with staff training the key element to obtain maximum use.
The recruitment processes for team leaders has been overhauled to ensure the right people with the right skill base are employed.
The senior management structure is currently being reviewed to ensure consistency of management and better performance management. A pre-consultation process has been undertaken with staff to obtain feedback on the structure within DSS and plans are being developed to adjust the structure to ensure support teams are better supported.
The general manager has been meeting with all 59 teams individually over the last four months to discuss the external report, its recommendations, and proposed path forward.
The approach to resolving key issues has been modified to use a more staff inclusive working party model.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Comments
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8661632/Family-of-abused-boy-praised
three stooges the three stooges the bee gees woodward keratosis pilaris rock and roll hall of fame 2012 brandon rios
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.