Uncaring Homes: The Corruption of Care and the Control and Exclusion of Residents and Patients

Abstract

This chapter highlights how those most in need—young people, the elderly and those with mental health issues—are often neglected and encounter exclusion and victimization.  I thus start this chapter with a review of how difficult it is to sometimes establish a clear definition of neglect and abuse. The range of acts that these cover is extensive and sometimes blurs. In the next section of the chapter, I breakdown who the offenders are—serial, pathological offenders and harassed employees, and also highlight why and how residents/patients are victimized. In the next section of the chapter, I consider how the institutional context affects how we behave and how it can alter behaviour and the quality of care, and types of neglect and abuse that might occur. In the final section of the chapter, I consider how difficult it is to expose poor healthcare, where active and passive neglect manifest into systemic abuse.