False imprisonment

[Suzysues]

Hello everyone, I have discovered that a lady with dementia is being locked in her home everyday and all night. Care workers come 4 times a day and use a key safe on the outside of the house to retrieve the key. They only stay for 10 to 15 minutes at a time and then leave, locking her in again. Her daughter is supposed to be her main carer but doesn’t live there and doesn’t do the requisite 35 hours a week at the house. The lady is left alone all night after the last care worker comes to put her to bed. She can be heard screaming help me and banging around for most of the night and into the early hours of the next morning. I have reported this to social services as a safeguarding concern but am also wondering if this is false imprisonment in a criminal law sense?

[dslippy]

It does not sound good at all. I think you have done what you properly can. Leave the system to work, without become more embroiled.

It is not clear where you think there might arise any obligation to 'live there and do the requisite 35 hours a week.'

[Suzysues]

The daughter is the main carer but is not there for very long so in total per week she is not doing the 35 hours that it says on the government website that she should be doing. I am hoping that social services do sort it out but if they don’t I am considering reporting it to the police as false imprisonment but thought I would check with you guys if it is false imprisonment in the criminal sense. Thanks.

[dslippy]

The daughter is the main carer but is not there for very long so in total per week she is not doing the 35 hours that it says on the government website that she should be doing. I am hoping that social services do sort it out. .

She should be doing 35 hours . . why?

[Suzysues]

Hi - she is the main carer so she has to provide a minimum of 35 hours care per week according to the government website in order to be classed as the main carer and claim carer’s allowance of £69.70 per week. My question is regarding the false imprisonment - I am just wanting to know if it is or it isn’t? Thanks x

[des8]

although the lady is left alone and does not perhaps receive the care she needs and is entitled to, I don't think that equates to imprisonment, false or otherwise.
Presumably she is not actually locked in (or have deadlocks been fitted to all doors?), and could (if she has the capability) let herself out of the house.

Also as she suffers from dementia, it will be argued that the restraint was for her own protection.
How demented is she?

[paulajayne]

How demented is she?

Phraseology - How bad is her Dementia would be better.

Made I laugh.

[echat11]

Hi - she is the main carer so she has to provide a minimum of 35 hours care per week according to the government website in order to be classed as the main carer and claim carer’s allowance of £69.70 per week. My question is regarding the false imprisonment - I am just wanting to know if it is or it isn’t? Thanks x

What she needs is regular welfare visits from a welfare officer from the Council to make sure she is getting the care she deserves, actually she should get 'amazing' care in this day and age. Drop the Council a line, they can check if she is being 'neglected'.

[des8]

although the lady is left alone and does not perhaps receive the care she needs and is entitled to, I don't think that equates to imprisonment, false or otherwise.
Presumably she is not actually locked in (or have deadlocks been fitted to all doors?), and could (if she has the capability) let herself out of the house.

Also as she suffers from dementia, it will be argued that the restraint was for her own protection.
How demented is she?

I suppose using words with their original meaning, besides being amusing is also politically incorrect.
Tough, I'm a dinosaur

[Suzysues]

Hi Des - she is locked in and would not be able to let herself out of the house if there was a fire. The son-in-law is a nasty person and just shouts at her when he comes. What is also alarming is that the care worker told me quite casually that she is locked in and cannot open any of the external doors when I said I had been knocking but she wasn't opening the door. The care worker said the only key to get into the house is in a key safe on the exterior of the house and the daughter and son-in-law have all the other keys - there are none in the house. The lady is left completely alone all night until the next care worker turns up at breakfast time. I work for the council and have raised a safeguarding referral last Thursday but if nothing is achieved with this then I will report it to the police anyway - but I was hoping for confirmation that it was a crime as in the crime of false imprisonment if the son-in-law rings me up to give me grief (he has rung my colleague up last year to tell her to ask the next door neighbours to stop interfering and he was very nasty to her). I was hoping to be able to say for definite to him that it is false imprisonment but can't seem to get a clear answer on that....

[des8]

probably there is no clear answer.
Matters, no matter how distressing, are rarely black and white.

You can only do what you think is right.

I hope your reporting gets this poor lady the care she needs