Co Mayo home called ‘another Leas Cross’

"Another Leas Cross" is the way the allegations of slapping and force-feeding of patients in a Co Mayo home for adults with an intellectual disability are being described at the highest levels in the health service.

The scale and severity of the allegations concerning Áras Attracta in Swinford are such that it was felt Taoiseach Enda Kenny should be briefed on them as long ago as last week, as he revealed yesterday.

Distress

Mr Kenny described the allegations as intolerable and spoke about the distress they must have caused for family members.

Nine staff at the home have been placed "off-duty" – suspended – on foot of the allegations, as The Irish Times first reported.

The HSE has instigated two separate investigations. Christy Lynch, chief executive of the KARE organisation for people with disabilities in Co Kildare, will chair an investigation into the abuse allegations, while Dr Kevin McCoy, a consultant and former member of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, will lead a review of services at Áras Attracta generally.

The State's health watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), regularly uncovers low standards in its many inspections of nursing homes and centres for people with intellectual disabilities. But what makes this different is the fact that incidents of alleged mistreatment were filmed undercover by a member of staff working for the RTÉ investigations unit.

The same elements turned Leas Cross into a huge national scandal in 2005, after a Prime Time television documentary highlighted the abuse of residents in the privately-run nursing home in Swords. The documentary caused a furore over standards of elderly care, led to the closure of the home and, ultimately, to the formation of Hiqa. Another Prime Time investigation that made extensive use of hidden cameras, into the mistreatment of children at three Dublin creches, prompted widespread revulsion when it aired last year.

The Áras Attracta documentary, to be broadcast next week, is expected to feature alleged incidents of force-feeding, slapping, kicking, physical restraint and shouting at vulnerable residents. The footage was taken by a member of RTÉ’s investigations unit moonlighting as a care assistant. She spent three weeks in the home on a work experience placement as a student care assistant. Two weeks ago, she tipped off Hiqa and the HSE locally about the alleged incidents, and gardaí have since been involved.

Assuming the journalist’s footage does reveal mistreatment, there are still two differences between Áras Attracta and Leas Cross.

The first is that a regulator now exists to monitor standards at such homes. Indeed, Áras Attracta has been on Hiqa’s radar for some time; last July, an inspector’s report found some residents were left without food for up to 16 hours, and even then they were served cold food.

Unannounced visits Hiqa inspectors do make unannounced visits to centres, but even this can’t compare to the punch delivered by a secretly filmed revelation.

The second difference from Leas Cross is that Áras Attracta is run by the HSE. Even if the allegations are proven, it can’t simply be shut down because there is no spare accommodation in an overcrowded public system. Whatever problems there are in the home will have to be resolved there.

Meanwhile, the death of former Áras Attracta resident Albert Loughney (72) in 2012 is still under investigation by gardaí.

*This article was edited on December 5th.