Care worker failed to report abuse of residents
An Ontario care worker’s failure to report the abuse of a resident was serious misconduct, but not serious enough to warrant dismissal, the Ontario Arbitration Board has ruled.
Danika Larocque worked as an integration agent for Integra, a provider of support services of developmentally and physically disabled people in Prescott, Ont. Her responsibilities included helping four resident adults at a facility called Cercle Henri in their everyday lives, including assistance with dressing, washing and bathing, as well as preparing their breakfast. She also administered medications and organized activities. Larocque worked for Integra for two years without any disciplinary issues and received a positive performance appraisal.
All Integra employees received training on how to deal with difficult situations and protocol on how to handle each of the residents, as the residents had high needs and could be difficult at times, even physically violent.
Integra learned from some employees that two integration agents were physically and mentally abusing residents. It fired the agents and launched an investigation, which determined there were other unreported incidents.
Integra held a meeting and asked staff to come forward with any information about the incidents and said failing to report abuse was just as serious as doing it. It then interviewed each employee, including Larocque. Larocque denied seeing any abuse and was unco-operative and guarded during the interview. Integra was suspicious because Larocque was related to one of the abusers through marriage.
After interviewing other employees, Integra had reason to believe Larocque was present when two incidents of abuse took place. The first was when one of the fired employees told a female resident who had a history of defecating in inappropriate places that if she did so in the pool he would hit her with a wooden spoon. Another employee reported she was fairly sure Larocque was at the pool. The second incident was when an autistic male resident with anxiety was taunted and restrained too roughly — contrary to protocol — when he became upset. Another employee reported Larocque came to the resident’s room and witnessed the incident.
When asked about the incident with the male resident, Larocque denied there was taunting and said the resident was handled within protocols and it only seemed rough because he was large. As a result, she felt there was nothing to report. She also said she felt Integra tried to intimidate her during the interviews and she felt threatened.
Integra believed the residents in question were abused and Larocque failed to report the abuse she witnessed. Since she refused to acknowledge she had done anything wrong by failing to report it, Integra terminated her employment for breaching its trust.
The board found Larocque didn’t want to get involved in the abuse investigation and demonstrated that attitude throughout the investigation. It also found there wasn’t sufficient evidence to show she witnessed the verbal abuse of the female resident, because the employee who reported it wasn’t completely sure she was there and actually heard the comment.
However, the board found Larocque was present during the second incident and admitted as much. The accounts of other employees that the male resident was regularly treated with physical control and the employee who claimed Larocque witnessed it reported the incident immediately after it happened. By not reporting it herself, Larocque “chose the easy route and claimed to have no knowledge” so she wouldn’t have to get involved, said the board.
Though Larocque’s failure to report the abuse and co-operate with the investigation was serious misconduct, the board found it fell short of just cause for dismissal. She was a relatively inexperienced worker with two years of discipline-free service and an excellent performance evaluation and did not participate in any resident abuse herself.
