An Edmonton woman who was told that her elderly mother slid out of her bed at a continuing care centre found something quite different when she reviewed footage from a camera she secretly installed in the room.
Susan Carter decided to install the hidden camera in the room at the Dianne & Irving Kipnes Centre for Veterans after her 89-year-old mother complained about another male resident.
What she saw in the footage shocked her.
In video recorded on Jan. 2, an elderly male resident is seen walking into her mother's room, then pulls on her arm and drags her out of her bed, despite her protests.
"When I got the video card out of the camera, oh my goodness, I noticed that this other resident had dragged mom out of bed over the space of seven-and-a-half minutes," she told CTV Edmonton.
Carter was especially upset, because the staff at Kipnes had initially told her that her mother, whose name is Eileen Adamson, had slid out of the bed on her own.
She said that she had raised concerns about the male resident in the past, but her complaints failed to yield results.
"They don't see him as a problem," Carter said.
She added that she had been satisfied with the level of care her mother was receiving for about six years. But now, after reviewing more of the footage, she said she's become concerned about more than just the male resident in question.
In another part of the video, staff are seen speaking rudely to her mother, and at one point a staff member appears to shove Adamson's arm.
"The disrespect that my mum has been shown is disgraceful," Carter said.
CaptialCare, the subsidiary of Alberta Health Services that runs the Kipnes centre, wouldn't provide comment about the video footage when asked by CTV Edmonton on Monday. But Alberta Health Services said an investigation is already underway.
Deb Gordon of Alberta Health Services said the provincial health authority is determined to get to the bottom of the incident.
"We are taking action; we have taken action already to make sure that all the residents are safe, including the two in the video," she said.
Meanwhile Carter has plans to meet with government officials on Tuesday to discuss her concerns.
With a report from CTV Edmonton's David Ewasuk