Liz Stern of Stonington, Connecticut, has been
among family members of nursing home
residents pressuring the Connecticut General
Assembly to pass a camera bill.
Stern took up the cause after the private aides
she hires to provide extra care for her 91-year-
old mother had to stop seeing her because of
COVID-19 visitor restrictions.
“They would report to us. They would put
the phone to her ear. They would take
photographs. They would manage anything
that went awry there,” said Stern, who’s worried
about neglect, not abuse. She has since been
unable to get a camera installed for various
reasons, including opposition from the family
of her mother’s roommate.
When Julie Griffith suspected that her 96-year-
old mother was being mistreated at a nursing
home near Toledo, Ohio, she and her husband
set up an audio recorder behind a picture frame
last August.
What they heard left them stunned — a male
nurse’s aide disguising himself as a woman and
verbally and mentally abusing Griffith’s mother
at night. It was enough to have the aide fired
and sentenced on abuse and neglect charges.
Now that they can no longer monitor what’s
happening inside her room, they are wracked
with fear.
“We have been at a loss since then and we can’t
get any answers,” Griffith said.
“They’re telling us everything is perfect. We have
no way of knowing,” said Julie’s husband, David.
“Everything is a secret.”