When I posted “the shocking truth behind this tragic video” on LinkedIn, the first comment it generated reframed the whole situation in less than five full lines, and in a way that made infinite sense to me. I think it will make huge sense to you too.
“Perspective is so important. A more accurate story lead-in would be: “These two people have been locked up against their consent for prolonged periods of time, rarely seeing the light of day, likely left with unmet needs for privacy, palatable food, and ordinary companionship. Predictably, they have done what we see prison inmates do with regularity–fight. Except these unfortunate people have committed no crimes.”
You said it Greg!
And I would add: They’re jailed because they live with dementia, a condition we stigmatize and haven’t yet (for the most part) learned to treat humanely.
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“You said it!” is a place to discover informed comments, inspiring thoughts, short stories, good ideas, provocative opinions, quotable quotes and noteworthy snippets from across my worldwide network.
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The shocking truth is we don’t know the truth at all, even though we think we do.
Here’s the Marketplace “teaser” version of the video, in which I’ve embedded a time stamp:
In an investigative programme entitled “Crying out for care” (see the full segment at the end of the open letter here), CBC’s Marketplace characterizes the incident as an assault in which a person with dementia attacked and caused the death of a fellow resident in a long-term care facility (LTCF) in Ontario, Canada. They infer the “assault” was unprovoked and caused by dementia, and that a contributing factor is a reduction in the use of antipsychotics in Ontario nursing homes.
This is seriously irresponsible reporting on behalf of the CBC and Marketplace. It’s misinformed and misleading, and it contributes to the stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Furthermore, it hinders rather than helps the process of solving the issue of violence in institutional care. I’ve written as much to Marketplace by email and through their website, and have received no response to date. So I published my email in an open letter here.
But let’s go back to the video teaser/trailer (V1) above. What really happens?
Although we see it for only a second, it appears the man in the dark shirt (DSM), approaches the man in the light shirt (LSM) from behind on LSM’s left side. LSM seems to be taller and bigger; he turns around counter clockwise. The next 16 seconds is difficult to watch. Although it’s hard to see, it may be that DSM shoves, pushes or hits LSM in the stomach area; LSM shoves back; DSM swings at him, LSM swings back and because he is taller and bigger, his blows are more “effective,” and DSM ends up on the floor.
Meanwhile, the text boxes on the left-hand side of the video say: “Warning: This video contains graphic content.” Prepare to be shocked! “Security footage shows a nursing home resident attacking another resident.” To be fair, it doesn’t specify who is “attacking” whom, but then “84-year-old Meyer Sadoway was assaulted and died four days later” runs alongside the video of LSM punching DSM in the head and DSM falling to the ground. No conclusion other than LSM is the “assailant” and DSM is the victim may be drawn from the combination of words and video.
But there are a number of issues that make what appears to be obvious, not so obvious at all.
First and foremost, we don’t know what happened in the months, weeks, days, and hours, before the incident occurred. Perhaps DSM and LSM have never gotten along and have a history of altercations; in which case, how and why do they find themselves alone together in the hallway?
Or maybe they have been best buddies up until this day, and something set them off. We don’t know.
In a CBC article that preceded the release of V1 (the teaser) and the full marketplace segment, we’re told that DSM’s sisters say that both DSM and LSM may have been aggressive with others. DSM’s sisters also say DSM found the unit he was on too noisy and he often became frustrated. “He lashed out aggressively toward other residents on several occasions in the months before he died,” they said according to the article.
Further, the article states that the sisters learned after the fact that “their brother’s assailant had become increasingly violent and attempted to fight other residents in the days before the attack.” We don’t know how they might have “learned” that, who said it, who witnessed it, when, where, or how.
Equally important, we don’t know what happened in the minutes and seconds before the dust up. Maybe LSM had been walking down the hall minding his own business, and DSM had been harassing him from behind until LSM finally turned around and the fight broke out. Or maybe they had had fisticuffs already and LSM walked away and DSM followed and then they fought again. Or some other scenario.
We also don’t know what, if anything, was said (or shouted or screamed). Perhaps DSM had been spitting insults at LSM as they walked down the hall. Maybe DSM came up behind LSM and said, “turn around you son of a bitch,” and when LSM turned around, DSM hurled obscenities at him and hit him in the stomach. We don’t know, because there’s no sound on the video. And because of the camera angle and the way the men are positioned, it’s hard to tell who was the provocateur. Who was it that pushed, shoved, or “lashed out” first? Was LSM truly the assailant? Or was it the other way around? Was LSM defending himself against DSM, and because LSM was bigger, DSM got the worst of it? One thing is sure, at the start of V1, LSM’s left side, and perhaps his back are turned toward DSM.
It’s clear (to me at least), based on what I see in V1, that this is a fight, not an unprovoked assault. What remains unclear is who started it. If I were a betting person, based on the fact that LSM appears to have been walking away from DSM before the action starts, and he turns around to face DSM, that it’s more likely that DSM is the instigator.
But I could be wrong. I can’t know for sure, because I am missing a whole lot of information with respect to what caused LSM and DSM to end up in a fight. If I had access to the footage starting five or 10 seconds earlier, I would have more information and could make a more educated guess. But perhaps even another 15 or 20 seconds would not be enough to make a call on what caused the altercation. There are simply too many variables. And if I can’t make a call, how can Marketplace?
This is not to make light of a tragic situation, or to lessen the seriousness of what happened. Two men who were supposed to be safe in care got in a fight. One of them died, likely as a result of the fight. Those are the facts. But the truth of what happened and why remains to be seen. One part of the truth is that most resident-on-resident incidents such as this one are not the result of dementia as was irresponsibly implied in this “investigative” piece.
The rest of the truth is out there. But it’s not on CBC’s Marketplace.
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I wrote and sent the text below in a comment, via the Marketplace website and also by email shortly after the Marketplace programme “Crying out for care” aired at the end of January 2018. So far, I haven’t received a response. I am also writing a three-part series of posts related to the CCTV video segment at the start of “Crying for care” (which may be viewed in its entirety at the end of this post), the first instalment of which is entitled “the shocking truth behind this tragic video.”
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Dear CBC Marketplace,
There are multiple issues with your story “Crying out for care,” particularly with respect to the opening segment, chief amongst which is that dementia is not the cause of the majority of resident-on-resident incidents such as this. More on that here:
It’s unhelpful to attribute these incidents to dementia when the behaviours of most people living with dementia are reasonable reactions to the circumstances and environments in which they find themselves:
It’s also unhelpful (as well as extremely irresponsible) to suggest there is a causal effect between a reduction in the use of antipsychotics and an increase in resident-on-resident interactions with results like the one the shown in the video. A year-long, pan-Canadian collaborative led by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare improvement found that incidents of physical aggression DECREASE when the use of antipsychotics is reduced:
While your statisticians may have found that antipsychotic use has gone down and resident-on-resident incidents have gone up, that doesn’t mean the two are correlated. Furthermore, the side effects of antipsychotics include increased anxiety and aggression; thus:
In fact, the causes of resident-on-resident incidents such as these are the same as the causes of the pervasive, persistent and systemic abuse and neglect that is part and parcel of long-term care in Canada and elsewhere:
Furthermore, I don’t think you are being accurate when you say this is a “year-long investigation,” and if you are, I suggest you hone your investigative techniques because there’s not much depth in this “investigation.” It’s superficial, inflammatory and sensationalist in many places.
Ironically, as a dementia care advocate and activist, I fully agree the system is broken and requires a major overhaul. But the way you present the information with respect to resident-on-resident incidents in particular is counterproductive at best, and irresponsible and damaging at worst.
This is a highly complex issue with no easy solutions. I would ask you to revisit it and provide a more nuanced, balanced and useful discussion of the issues at hand.
Please dig deeper in your investigation.
Thank you,
Susan
Susan Macaulay
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I posted “hidden restraints: hidden abuse” on Facebook with this lead in: “Physical restraints aren’t always as obvious as safety belts and prison bars. I still get upset when I watch these videos; I just feel this is so wrong. On the other hand, I’m grateful I was there to liberate my mom each day, even if it was only for a few hours.”
The post was shared dozens of times and generated many comments, but this one from Sue Clarke, which I have reproduced here exactly as she wrote it, touched my heart; she said:
“My mom. Had got. Alzheimers. And demture. And the car Home. Would lock her in her room. When she. Started. To shout and lash out. We been few times. Me and my auntie. Dad. Used to get up set. We had to find a. Carerer. To unlock the. Door with. A key It’s so sad for the family. And god knows what these poor. Lady. Family feel. I’m so glad. Mom and dad. Have. Passed away. Together. Gone to a better place. Xxx”
Sue Clarke’s comment felt to me like a raw piece of poetry, just like being the care partner to someone living with Alzheimer disease can sometimes be like an experiential life poem that is at once beautiful and tragic.
“You said it!” is a place to discover informed comments, inspiring thoughts, short stories, good ideas, provocative opinions, quotable quotes and noteworthy snippets from across my worldwide network.
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Greg Steven Elofson, Co-Founder at AlzCare Labs, Inc. said: