Winterbourne View Case Study

Castlebeck is a large company employing 2,100 people providing care for 580 service users at 56 locations nationwide. One of these locations is Winterbourne View, a privately owned 24 bed facility that treats people with autism and learning difficulties. An urgent investigation was conducted after a BBC panorama reporter went undercover at the facility as an untrained support worker. The footage captured showed some of the hospitals most vulnerable patients being subjected to serious abuse. The staff at Winterbourne was caught on film whilst teasing and taunting patient.

Essay Example on Winterbourne Care Home Case Study

They were also caught hitting and kicking and pinning down patients. One patient was dragged into a cold shower fully clothed then put outside in the cold. Certain members of staff were seen as ring leaders however other members of staff sat back and watched or pretended that nothing was going wrong. A former Winterbourne nurse Terry Bryan tried to raise his concerns both with Castlebeck and CQC. The owners of winterbourne, health regulators, local health services and the police were all criticised for failing to act on a number of warning signs of increased institutional abuse by the staff.

The professional standards and codes of practice had no bearing on patient care as Winterbourne View became largely “led” by its biggest staff group, the unregulated support workers, despite the presence of a team of 13 learning disability nurses. Training was skewed towards restraint practices with nothing about working with patients and a clinical psychologist who viewed the footage said basic techniques for dealing with people with challenging behaviour were ignored.

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Police confirmed that three men aged 42, 30 and 25 and a woman aged 24 was arrested as part of the investigation. There were also 13 employees suspended.

One of the care homes patients who was being subjected to terrible abuse told her parents but they refused to believe her saying that it would never be allowed to happen. In a statement the CQC said following an internal review it recognised that there were indications of problems that should have led them to take action sooner. The care services minister Mr Burstow confirmed with CQC that they should undertake a series of unannounced inspections of services for people with learning difficulties. Castlebeck have launched an internal investigation into their whistle blowing procedures and are reviewing the records of 580 patients.

The vulnerable patients from the documentary have been removed to safety. A statement from the chief executive of Castlebeck said he was utterly ashamed by what had happened and sent unreserved apologizes to both the service users and their families. Gloustershire council said it takes all allegations of abuse seriously and as soon as the SAB (safe guarding adults board) were made aware of the allegations at winterbourne the correct and appropriate action was taken in line with established protocol and procedures.