A worker at a Fife care home slapped a resident before branding her a “horrible woman”.
Care assistant Karen Lenny abused the elderly woman while working at Methven House last year.
The sector’s watchdog found her fitness to practice impaired but stopped short of banning her from working in the profession.
‘Challenging situation’
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) found Ms Lenny slapped the resident on the arm and also the leg.
She also called her a “b****” and a “horrible woman” before telling a colleague at the Kirkcaldy home the incident didn’t happen.
She sent a Facebook message while on her way home that morning on the train saying: “What you doin telling management I abused AA (the resident).
“I didn’t lay a hand on her. I walked away after I was almost kicked in the face and clawed, thanks for that.”
The incident occurred on January 16 2020 at the Bennochy Road facility.
The panel accepted that Ms Lenny found herself in a “challenging situation” when providing personal care to the resident.
But it found her behaviour suspicious after being told she was suspended, giving credence to the claims.
In a ruling, it stated: “The panel…found it telling that when you were suspended you told XX [a supervisor] that you knew what the allegations related to.
“That was confirmed because you messaged ZZ [a co-worker who made the complaint] later that day saying you had not abused AA despite the fact that you had not been informed at that time of who the resident was and who had made the allegation.
“The panel did not think you were wholly straightforward when answering questions about the incident and that if you had done nothing wrong, you would have been more forthcoming about explaining exactly what happened from your point of view.”
‘Slapping sound’ heard
The SSSC found her actions amounted to a “loss of control”.
Before the incident, the resident, who had previously displayed “challenging behaviour”, was lying diagonally across her bed.
In order to remove the wet sheet and nightwear, she was moved onto her
right side and was flailing her arms and legs.
She was lashing out at both Ms Lenny and her colleague (named as ZZ) when the pair were trying to change her clothes.
While this happened, Ms Lenny raised her hand and hit the woman’s arm with enough force to make a slapping sound.
When the resident lashed out with her foot Ms Lenny again hit her with her left hand in a back hand motion against her leg.
She then followed up the slaps with the abusive comments.
A warning has been placed on her registration as a care worker for 12 months and she must complete dementia awareness training as well as be supervised while working.
Methven House, which was badly hit by Covid last year, opened in 2005 and has three floors with a total of 60 bedrooms.
It is run by Kingdom Homes.