A Perthshire care home worker who attacked a 95-year-old dementia patient and called her a “brat” has been banned from the profession.
Davina Bissett was struck off by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) after she twice seized the elderly woman by her wrists and pinned her to a bed at Moncreiffe Care Home in Bridge of Earn.
The assault, which took place on March 24 last year, ended when Bissett threw a duvet over the patient’s head.
Pensioner left covered in bruises
She admitted assaulting the resident to her injury when she appeared at Perth Sheriff Court in October.
Bissett, of Banklands, who had been a senior carer at the complex for 16 years, was fined £600.
Images released by the Crown Office following Bissett’s conviction showed dark bruises across her victim’s shoulders and arms.
As reported in The Courier’s coverage of the court case, fiscal depute Sarah Wilkinson told the court how another member of staff heard Bissett say to the pensioner: “Will you stop it? Stop hitting me. Do as you’re told.”
When she entered the room, the staff member saw the pensioner lying on her back on the bed.
The victim was later seen to mouth “help” to the other worker at the home, which has since closed.
Bissett also told a colleague “she needs to learn to behave” in reference to the pensioner, after being asked to leave the room.
Bissett further told her victim: “Stop being a brat.”
Police, social workers and the Care Inspectorate were alerted and Bissett was suspended with immediate effect.
Solicitor Jamie Baxter, defending, told the court that Bissett had been looking after her victim for five years and the incident was “out of character”.
An investigation by SSSC – the details of which have just been published – found Bissett’s behaviour was “incompatible” with the profession.
The watchdog also found Bissett had shown no regret for her actions and that there was a risk her behaviour could be repeated in the future.
The report added: “There is no evidence of any insight or regret from you and there is no evidence of remediation.
“Conduct of this nature raises serious and fundamental questions about your values and there is a risk that your behaviour may be repeated in the future.
“Your behaviour indicated a loss of self-control and serious underlying attitudinal and values issues which are not easily remediable.”
