Verbal Abuse and Demeaning Language Used Toward Residents in Smoking Area
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to protect a resident from verbal abuse by a staff member during a supervised smoking line. A psychiatric rehabilitation services coordinator (V4) was overseeing the smoking line when a miscommunication occurred between the front desk and V4 about which floor’s residents were to go down to smoke. Residents from the fifth floor, including R2 and R3, went to the first floor smoking area after the receptionist paged them. While residents were in line, V4 became upset and used profanity and demeaning language toward them, including statements such as being “sick of this s***,” calling them “f***** kids,” and asking “what are you doing mother f***r.” R2 reported that while he was talking with other residents about energy and people’s character, V4 told him, “Little boy, watch the f*** you are saying,” which he stated made him feel disrespected. Multiple cognitively intact residents corroborated that V4 was verbally aggressive and used derogatory language toward residents in the smoking line. R3 stated that V4 was verbally aggressive toward residents and used derogatory language toward everyone in line, including R2, and that she cursed when the wrong floor came down to smoke. R4, who was severely cognitively impaired, stated that V4 was rude and did not know how to talk to people and “talked crazy all the time.” The facility’s Resident Rights policy requires employees to treat all residents with respect, kindness, and dignity and to provide an environment that preserves dignity and supports a positive self-image. Staff, including the Social Services Director/Administrator-in-Training and the Administrator, acknowledged that calling residents children is demeaning and a dignity issue, and that staff are not expected to verbally abuse residents. The incident constituted a failure to uphold the resident’s right to be free from verbal abuse and to an environment that preserves dignity.
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