Update: CBC News reports Police investigation into assault at Open Arms Family Care.

Courtesy CBC.ca

Charges were pending Thursday against a worker in a privately-owned seniors’ home in relation to an assault complaint from a former resident.

Another complaint was filed last February. Government officials won’t say what was investigated but said the matter was resolved.

Read More on CBC.ca

When we visited this facility we noted a Social Care Facilities License, a government license. The home appeared to be seriously overcrowded, and when we entered the facility, residents were not alert, and failed to look up as we walked through. In one basement bedroom there was hardly enough room for two beds, let alone other furniture.

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Previously published under “Overcrowded Group Home”

Josephine Stankiewicz had planned for her ultimate decease. She was 95 years old. She had made her funeral plans on Oct. 26, 2005 with Connelly-McKinley Ltd. Funeral home. She wanted a full traditional service at her Polish Church, complete with printed memorial folders at a cost of $225.00, a memorial book and Thank You cards $250.00. She ordered two limousines and one funeral coach at a cost of $1,285.00. She had selected a lovely redwood casket. She ordered that an obituary notice be placed at a cost of $250.00. She had everything planned and then paid in advance for it all–$10,587.65. She even had planned for flowers to be placed on her casket at a cost of $300.00.

However, when she entered the Bramel Group Home, her rights and her estate were taken over by the owner of the Group Home. When she did decease, there was no funeral, there was no memorial book, there were no limousines, no funeral coach, no obituary notice in the Edmonton Journal. There was just a small graveside ceremony and we did not even know that Josephine Stankiewicz had passed away.

This again demonstrates that as seniors, seniors can make their plans, they can even spend considerable money to do so and yet their rights may ultimately, be totally disregarded.

(Click to enlarge)

• First Letter – December 19, 2007
• Reponse from Capital Health – January 10, 2008
• Reponse from CARNA – January 10, 2008
• Second Letter – January 17, 2008
• Response from Public Guardian – January 28, 2008
• Response from Public Trustee – January 30, 2008
• Third Letter – February 4, 2008
• Reponse from Deputy Minister – February 21, 2008
• Fourth Letter – March 10, 2008

First Letter – December 19, 2007

Via Facsimile 780 453 0546
Letter to follow

Ms. Sue Chandler,
Complaints Director
College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta
11620 168 Street
Edmonton, AB T5M 4A6

Complaint against Darlene Bouclin RN, owner and operator

• There is no valid license posted at the Home.
• Posted are two lapsed licenses for the Duplex. 
• There is only one worker at all times despite two licenses. One of the day staff workers is six months pregnant.
• One staff person for 8 dependant persons.
• One man is wheel chair dependant
• One lady has advanced ALS, can no longer speak, requires tube feeding is confined to her room.
• One elderly person has severe congestive heart failure and fell to the floor. A resident had to assist to pick her up.

Fire safety is obviously being disregarded. Who could evacuate these helpless persons in the event of a fire? Evacuation was not possible in the Capilano fire early this year when a dependant person burned to death in the basement of the group home.

Staff persons are PCA’s who have no training.

Medications are administered by the PCA.

Food sometimes inadequate and inappropriate. i.e. two fried eggs which were somewhat raw and french fries composed a noon meal.

Mice are sometimes seen in the kitchen area.

No recreational activities for residents only TV & eating.

In November, Alberta Health & Environment was called because the group home rooms were cold. Cold rooms were also reported in February, 2007.

Some residents live in 8′ x 10′ x 4′ rooms and pay $2,600.00 per month and have to go down the hall for sink, toilet and shower. These rooms require illumination during the daytime.

Three persons were transferred from Alberta Hospital Edmonton by Public Guardian Officer Debbie Urquhart, to this home. When objection was made concerning the quality of the accommodation or cost, the threat was made that they would be returned to Alberta Hospital and injected with a needle. This is terrifying. These injections cause extreme distress, headache and may endure for several days.

A resident has paid $78,000.00 to Darlene Bouclin in the last 21-22 years.

Residents must purchase their medications and related supplies at the Primrose Pharmacy which is owned by the sister of the owner Darlene Bouclin. Supplies such as Kleenex tissues may be charged to a resident but used generally for the facility.

Darlene Bouclin has Power of Attorney over a 97-year-old resident. The resident said she had no choice but to sign over Power of Attorney when she was accepted into the home. Upon admission, Darlene Bouclin took this senior immediately to a lawyer and the senior signed over half of her estate.

The 97-year-old who is very alert has said that Darlene Bouclin also has obtained Power of Attorney over other seniors at the facility or elsewhere.

Darlene Bouclin spends hours visiting this lady, door closed. She drives her to appointments and even to friends but does not provide this service to other residents. The Group Home is located three blocks from a bus stop.

Darlene Bouclin’s group home has plastic flowers on the deck year round, however she provides a continuous supply of fresh cut flowers to this 97 year old lady’s room. The senior who is very sharp states that she understands that it is probably her money that is paying for all the flowers.

Much more could be said.

We allege that Darlene Bouclin RN:

• fails to act as a patient advocate
• fails to act in a professional and ethical manner
• fails to act in the best interests of the client
• fails to maintain protocol and standards that result in safe, ethical care

Many professionals and people in high places are fully informed of this situation including the Office of the Public Guardian and the Office of the Public Trustee.

We request your investigation into this matter. We would be grateful to be in receipt of a response by the 10th January 2008. Thank you.

Furthermore, we anticipate that those to whom this complaint has been copied, will also actively investigate this complaint and also respond in a similar timely manner.

Thank you

Most sincerely,

Elder Advocates Of Alberta Society

Photographs are available.

cc.

The Honourable Janis Tarchuk, Minister of Child Services.
The Honourable Mr. Art Johnston MLA Chairman, Social Care Facilities Review Committee
The Honourable Mr. Greg Melchin, Minister of Seniors
The Honourable Mr Dave Hancock, Minister of Health

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Reponse from Capital Health – January 10, 2008

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Reponse from CARNA – January 10, 2008

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Second Letter – January 17, 2008

Dr. Kevin Lawless, Psychiatrist
Dr. Margaret Rourke, Psychiatrist
Barbara Fraser, Public Guardian Officer

Debbie Urquhart, Public Guardian Officer
Bob Mitchell, Public Guardian Officer
Karen Janz, Public Trustee Officer

BRAMEL HOMES
Darlene Bouclin RN Owner and Operator
15331 104 Ave.
Edmonton, AB T5P 0R7
Tel (780) 489-8184

We became aware of this group home because of a senior, who is a Resident of Bramel Homes whom we had assisted for many years. We sat with her dying husband at Lynwood Nursing home and helped to arrange the deceased husband’s funeral. Furthermore, we also had occasion to visit a former classmate’s husband at the home, who spent a month of respite at Bramel Homes which cost $2,600.

Your client lives in this home. She is a most fragile, sensitive, intelligent person, a retired American RN who took post graduate studies.

She had suffered depression and was a patient at Alberta Hospital. When she turned sixty five, she was moved to a geriatric ward and summarily declared incompetent, all her rights taken from her.

BRAMEL HOMES (Group Homes), falls under the jurisdiction of the Social Care Facilities Review Committee Act and the Ministries of the Honourable Janis Tarchuk, Minister of Child Services and the Honourable Mr. Art Johnston MLA Chairman, Social Care Facilities Review Committee.

No valid licenses posted at the Home on December 19, 2007.

Posted were two lapsed licenses for the Duplex.

There is only one worker at all times despite two licenses and a requirement for at least two staff.

One staff person for 8 senior residents.

One of the day staff workers is six months pregnant.

There are two wheel chair dependant persons.

One resident suffers advanced ALS, can no longer speak, requires tube feeding is mostly confined to her room.

One elderly person has severe congestive heart failure and fell to the floor. A resident had to become involved to help to pick her off the floor.

Two seniors live in basement rooms which have small windows. There is a gate at the basement entrance.

Fire safety has been disregarded by owner, Darlene Bouclin and government licensing inspectors. Basement windows are small, basement rooms should be condemned.

One worker could not evacuate these helpless, dependant persons in the event of a fire. Evacuation was not possible in the Capilano fire early this year when Marilyn Lane burned to death in the basement of the Independent Counselling Services group home.

It is troubling that Darlene Bouclin was and continues to be issued licences for this group home.

Staff persons are persons hired off the street.

Medications are administered by these untrained workers.

They must cook the meals, clean the facility, administer nursing care such as tube feeding to resident, give personal care such as dressing and bathing some of the residents and do the laundry.

Food is sometimes inadequate and inappropriate. i.e. two fried eggs which were somewhat raw and french fries composed a noon meal.

Mice are sometimes seen in the kitchen area.

No recreational activities are provided for residents only TV.

In November 2007, Alberta Health & Environment was called because the rooms were cold, Bouclin had turned down the heat. Cold rooms were also reported in February, 2007.

In February 2007 when a woman expressed to the Public Guardian Officer Debbie Urquhart, that she was cold, Urquhart instructed her to wear heavier clothing and thick soled shoes.

In November 2007, while attending at the home, Public Guardian Officer Barbara Fraser failed to address the matter of the low temperature though it was brought to her attention. Ninety seven year old Josephine Stankiewicz had added blankets on her bed to keep warm.

Your client lives in an 8′ x 10′ 4′ room and pays $2,600.00 per month and has to go down the hall for sink, toilet and shower. Her room and others require electric lighting during the daytime because they have no natural light (This would cause depression in many individuals especially persons who are being treated for depression.)

She has appealed by letter to Public Guardian Officer Barbara Fraser and Public Trustee Officer Karen Janz and verbally to Dr. Kevin Lawless, that the rent was excessive however no one has intervened on her behalf or even responded to her Correspondence.

Lawyer Gary Romanchuk, long time Chairman of the Dependant Adult Review Panel, who together with the government Review Panel carried out a Dependant Adult Review of your client at the Group Home on October 13, 2006, is fully aware of this home. On that occasion, he said that they charge the exorbitant amount for this humble accommodation, “because they can”. He did nothing to ameliorate the situation of your client and others at the home but he and his Panel recommended the continuation of the dependant adult status of your client (prisoner status, although prisoners have rights, dependant adults have few rights)

Persons were transferred from Alberta Hospital Edmonton to this home by Guardian Officer Debbie Urquhart, under the direction of Dr. Margaret Rourke. Those who had her sent there, had full knowledge of the home. Psychiatrist, Dr. Rourke noted that your client would have to dip into her savings in order to pay this excessive rent.

When objection was made concerning the quality of the accommodation and cost, the threat was made that they would be returned to Alberta Hospital and given the needle. This is a terrifying and very real threat, intimidation by needle.

Those of us who have received complaints and are familiar with Alberta Hospital protocol, know that if a patient in any way fails to be compliant, refuses to take medication perhaps because of serious side effects, he/she may be seized by nursing attendants and given a “needle in the a**”. We have been told many times of this terrifying process. These injections cause extreme distress, headache, unconsciousness, which may last for two to three days (See our website re. Bill 31, www.elderadvocates.ca).

In the last two years, your client has paid $65,000. to Darlene Bouclin for this accommodation. The Bath Schedule clearly indicates she is “self care”,(attached), does her own laundry, even cleans the bathroom sink for busy staff, sets the table and other chores. She buys a lot of her own food, fish and omega eggs.

All residents must purchase their medications and related supplies at the Primrose Pharmacy which is owned by the sister of the owner Darlene Bouclin.

Darlene Bouclin has Power of Attorney over a 97 year old resident. The resident Josephine Stankiewicz, said she had no choice but to sign over Power of Attorney when she was accepted into the home.

Upon admission, Darlene Bouclin immediately took this senior to her long time lawyer and confidant, Robert Christensen, and according to the senior, signed. over half of her significant estate. The senior was lead to believe that Robert Christiensen was not a lawyer when he prepared her papers.

Josephne has told us that Darlene Bouclin also holds Power of Attorney over other seniors. Darlene Bouclin has other holdings such as the George Hennig Assisted Living in Stony Plain, Alberta.

Darlene Bouclin spends hours visiting this lady behind a closed door. She drives her to appointments but does not provide this service to other residents. The Group Home is located three blocks from a bus stop. She has barred some persons from visiting Josephine Stankiewicz and has changed Josephine’s long time phone number.

Year round, Darlene Bouclin’s group home has plastic flowers on the front deck, however she provides a continuous supply of fresh cut flowers to this 97 year old lady’s room. The senior has said that she believes that it is probably her money that is paying for all the fresh cut flowers.

Much, much more could be said.

We request your response in regard to this matter. We would be grateful to be in receipt of a response by the 27th of January 2008. Thank you.

We are available to discuss this matter at anytime.

Furthermore, we anticipate that those to whom this complaint has been copied, will also actively investigate this matter and also respond in a similar timely manner. Thank you.

Yours truly,

Elder Advocates Of Alberta Society

HAND DELIVERED TO:
The Honourable Mr. Greg Melchin, Minister of Seniors
The Honourable Mr Dave Hancock, Minister of Health
The Honourable Mr. Ron Stevens, Minister of Justice
Ms. Sheila Weatherall RN, CEO, Capital Health Authority

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Response from Public Trustee – January 28, 2008

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Response from Public Guardian – January 30, 2008

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Third Letter – February 4, 2008

via Facsimile 780 453 0546, Letter to follow

Ms. Sue Chandler, Complaints Director
College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta
11620 168 Street, Edmonton, AB T5M 4A6

Complaint against Darlene Bouclin RN, owner and operator of
Bramel Homes
15331 104 Ave
Edmonton, AB T5P 0R7
Tel (780) 489-8184

It is now close to seven weeks since we made our first complaint concerning this matter to the College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA. To date no CARNA investigator has contacted us.

We received a letter from your office dated, January 7, 2007 which acknowledged our complaint. On the same date signs went up in the home, stating we were not allowed on the premises, signed by Darlene Bouclin.

The group home is a fire trap and some of the residents are being financially gouged (abused) by the owner of this home. At all times, there is inadequate staffing. Basement rooms are unsuitable for housing human beings. The group home was unlicensed at the time of our complaint, nevertheless, immediately subsequent to our complaint to you, the Social Care Facilities and licensing Act relicensed the home, signed by Judy Erickson.

Because of your failure to investigate, further complaints were made. It is deeply troubling to note that except for the fire department, there has been virtually no response in regard to this matter.

Yours truly,

Elder Advocates Of Alberta Society

Photographs are available

HAND DELIVERED TO:
The Honourable Mr. Greg Melchin, Minister of Seniors
The Honourable Mr Dave Hancock, Minister of Health
The Honourable Mr. Ron Stevens, Minister of Justice
Ms. Sheila Weatherall RN, CEO, Capital Health Authority
Mr. Art Johnston MLA Chair, Social Care Facilities Review Committee

Reponse from Deputy Minister – February 21, 2008

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Fourth letter – March 10, 2008

via Fax (780) 422-9138
Letter to follow

Public Guardian Edmonton Region
Seniors and Community Supports,
9942-108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2J5

Attention: Ms. Shirley Peleshytk,

INVESTIGATION RE: THREAT MADE TO ALBERTA HOSPITAL RESIDENTS

In our correspondence of December 19, 2007, and further correspondence of January 17, 2008, copied to the Honourable Minister of Seniors, Mr. Greg Melchin, we made the following allegation:

“Persons were transferred from Alberta Hospital Edmonton to this home (Bramel Homes 15331 104 Avenue) by Public Guardian Officer Debbie Urquhart, under the direction of Dr. Margaret Rourke, Psychiatrist. Those who sent her there, had full knowledge of the home. When objection was made concerning the quality of the accommodation and cost, the threat was made that they would be returned to Alberta Hospital and given the needle. This is a terrifying and very real threat, ‘intimidation by needle’”.

It is indeed a serious allegation. Deputy Minister Tim Wiles has replied to our letter in correspondence dated February 21, 2008, stating that you have investigated this matter and found no evidence thereof. (attached)

Please inform us as to the protocol you carried out to make this alleged investigation and whom did you question concerning this matter.

Thank you. We shall be awaiting your reply and be grateful to be in receipt of such reply by the 18th March, 2008.

Yours truly,

Elder Advocates Of Alberta Society

Attached: Letter Mr. Time Wiles dated February 21, 2008

cc. Mr. Tim Wiles, Deputy Minister, Seniors and Community Supports

No reponse to date

Private group home had no firm policies on missing clients.

Group home owner, Rohana Weerasekera, a nurse at Alberta Hospital, failed to call police until eight cold winter days passed after Bob Earle disappeared from his psychiatric group home. It was eight cold days before the police were called, a fatality inquiry heard Wednesday.

Care-Canada Ltd was licensed by the province to operate the private, for-profit home, but it had no firm policies on what to do when a client went missing.

By the time police were called so much time had passed they didn’t bother searching for Earle, 38. They were told he left without his medication for bipolar disorder also known an manic depression and that he had a history of lengthy absences, said Const. Kevin McCloskey. “My thinking at the time was, after eight days, if any harm had come to him it had already happened.”

Earle’s frozen body was found more than three months later, in some bushes about 25 blocks from the Mill Woods home. The medical examiner said he died of exposure.

The supervisor, Marisela Henriquez, said Earle was acting normally when he went out the morning of Dec 15, 1998, and never returned.

The next day she called her boss, Rohana Weerasekera, and Earle’s social worker.

Henriquez said she also tried to reach Earle’s sister; but her phone was not in service. It didn’t occur to her to call police, she told provincial court Judge David McNab.” She said she was paid $700 a month to live in the home and provide some care for the six residents, all of whom were mentally ill.

Henriquez said she might have been given a policy manual when she was hired but didn’t have time to read it.

She understood her job was to cook and clean for the clients, keep in touch with their social workers and ensure they took their medication, but she had no control over them.

Weerasekera, who’s also a registered psychiatric nurse at Alberta Hospital, said he opened three group homes in 1997 when the provincial government began shifting mental-health patients from institutions into cheaper, community-based care.

Group homes like Care-Canada’s have to be licensed under the adult social-care Facilities act, the local licensing supervisor testified. But the Act has no regulations that specify what standards the homes should meet.

At A Glance

What’s happening? The province is holding a fatality inquiry into the death of Robert “Bob” Earle, 38 who was found dead of exposure more than three months after he walked away from his group home. Earle suffered from bipolar disorder, or manic depression.

What are the issues?

• The private, for-profit group home waited eight days to report his disappearance to police.
• The provincial act that licenses such facilities doesn’t specify what standards or policies they should follow

What does his family say? “I was very relieved to have it at least brought out to the front,” said sister Denise Carlson, of Quesnel, BC. “Before, it was kind of pushed under the carpet.”

A “reprehensible” man who drunkenly broke into a group home and attacked a terrified nine-year-old boy – in his own bed – was sent to prison yesterday.

However, Cameron has only one more year left to serve after getting 42 months credit for the 21 months he spent in pre-trial custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre.

“Sexual assault of children is reprehensible. Doing so in the child’s own bed is worse,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Read, calling the sex crime an “invasion” of the sleeping victim’s bedroom.

Court heard an intoxicated Cameron tried to get into a north-side group home for children on July 21, 2005, but was told he was not allowed by a female supervisor.

He then knocked on several basement bedroom windows, waking up an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy, who both refused to let him in and ran to alert the supervisor.

The woman then heard a window being broken and called police because she was too scared to go downstairs.

When officers arrived at the bedroom of the nine-year-old victim and turned on the light, they found Cameron with his pants at his ankles on top of the boy, molesting him. Police said the boy’s eyes were bulging and he had a terrified look on his face, as Cameron was kissing and licking his body.

Court also heard Cameron told the boy, who was curled up in a fetal position, he would kill him if he told anyone.

In a victim impact statement read out in court by the prosecutor, the now 11-year-old boy said he is scared to go downstairs alone and has trouble sleeping at night.

In an earlier prepared psychiatric assessment, the sex offender denied he had molested the boy and claimed it didn’t sound like something he would do.

In exchange for the guilty plea, charges of sexual assault, sexual contact with a child and uttering death threats were withdrawn. Cameron was also ordered to be placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.

Adapter from The Edmonton Sun, April 5, 2008

Far too frequently, Group Homes whether they be for children, seniors, or handicapped, are unregulated, unmonitored and unsafe.

EDMONTON – Rescuers couldn’t reach a woman who cried out for help Thursday, trapped in the basement as flames raged through a group home for people with special needs in the Capilano neighbourhood.

When Lyndon Nemutambwe and Pascal Thaka broke the home’s basement window, they could hear a woman’s voice, but could barely make out her weak cries for help.

“The woman said she wanted to get out, but she couldn’t,” said Nemutambwe, 31

The two men happened to be jogging past the home at 10632 50th St. on Thursday night when they spotted flames.

“We saw people coming out and there was smoke coming out of the house,” Nemutambwe said. “One of the ladies was coming out with a phone, and she said there was somebody in the basement.”

He and Thaka tried to get into the home through the front door, where there was a wheelchair ramp. When they opened the door, they couldn’t see in the darkness.

They turned around and ran to the back of the house, where they broke a basement window. A cloud of smoke rushed out.

“We tried to help,” Thaka said. “But too much smoke.”

Firefighters arrived on scene shortly after 8:20 p.m. The fire crew launched what they call a fast attack, pulling a hose into the basement

in hopes of beating back the flames and reaching the trapped woman, said fire department spokeswoman Nikki Booth.

Three firefighters were in the basement when the fire created a flashover.

Gases inside the home reached 1,100 C and ignited, melting parts of their helmets and radios and charring their visors, Booth said.

“It’s very, very hot, very dark, thick smoke and it flashes,” she said.

The firefighters had to thread the hose back out of the basement and crawl out to safety. All three were sent home shaken but uninjured.

Similar conditions killed two veteran firefighters in Winnipeg in February. A third suffered critical injuries, and another threw himself out a window seconds before the flashover.

Five people were in the group home when the fire started, Booth said. Four escaped safely, and one was taken to hospital.

Booth could not confirm the dead woman’s age or say whether she was disabled.

A group of people, including two in wheelchairs, waited across the street from the house. A young woman in tears was later led away by two men.

The cause of the fire and where in the house it started were not known at press time. Investigators expected to remain on scene well into this morning.

No inquiry has been called.

Adapted from: The Edmonton Journal, April 14, 2007

Almost a year after his mentally-ill brother disappeared on a day-pass from Alberta hospital Edmonton, Pat Dawson is taking his ashes home for a memorial service in Saskatoon on Monday.

The body of his 42-year-old brother Tim, who suffered manic depression, was recently found on a remote shore of the North Saskatchewan River near Two hills.

After about 11 months in the water, all that was left was Tim’s skeleton and the clothes he wore, including a special type of shoe he had requested that was like his brother Pat’s.

Pat, 44, a licensed nurse at University Hospital, said Alberta Hospital Edmonton let his brother out on a day pass on July 15 last year, to be escorted to a group home.

He said no one was at the group home, and Tim apparently wandered off.

He said he still can’t believe the hospital let that happen.

“He probably went into the river that day,” Pat said Friday, the day Tim’s remains were cremated.

He said it wasn’t until a day after Tim’s release that he found out his brother was missing.

Pat remembers searching Edmonton streets and filing a missing-person report with police.

Finding Tim’s body was “not a relief” he said.

“It’s a lot of pain. I was pretty sure he was in the river. But, you’re always hoping that he wouldn’t be, so there’s another chance, eh?”

Pat said he’s angry the hospital let out his brother, because he believes Tim clearly wasn’t healthy enough to go. He said no one has been reprimanded.

“I think when it comes down to a death, they should hold somebody responsible,” he said. “But they don’t. They an blame it on everything else.”

When Tim was still alive Pat went to the hospital, before or after work, for a 30-day stretch to ensure he took his medication, which he was refusing to do.

“He had a seizure in there. He had short term-memory loss from the seizure. He couldn’t remember his room number, or put on his socks,” Pat said. “And they let him out on a pass.”

Ron LaJeunesse, Alberta head of the Canadian Mental Health Association, called the case “a real tragedy. I suspect it was a professional judgment. People thought he was doing better than he was.”

He added: “The frank truth is that the hospitals are trying to discharge people as quickly as they are able. They lack community resources to do that.”

The province isn’t spending enough money to provide adequate, supervised group homes, or to develop more rigorous regulations for private, for-profit homes, LaJeunesse said.