The sister of a Cape Breton man with Down syndrome says her brother’s small option home has abandoned him at a hospital.
For 20 years, Brent Beaton has lived at Koster Huis, a home in Mabou, N.S., operated by the County of Inverness Municipal Housing Corporation, a non-profit licensed and funded by the province.
Beaton, 60, and three other people with disabilities lived at the home, which had two staff members on site most of the time to look after them.
But on Dec. 22, Laureen Murphy said she received an email from Koster Huis stating that her brother was being taken to hospital in Inverness by ambulance because his temperature was fluctuating, his skin was discoloured and his urine was foul-smelling.
Not long after his arrival, hospital staff determined he could go home but Koster Huis refused to take him back, she said.
“I phoned the hospital in the morning and they said, ‘Well, there was nothing alarming, he’s going to be discharged.’ But then I found out [the administration] wasn’t taking him home,” said Murphy.
“I felt he was abandoned at the hospital completely.”
Her brother, she said, enjoys listening and dancing to fiddle music on his CD player, particularly tunes by his cousin, musician Howie MacDonald. Although he’s now non-verbal, he also loves a good joke, she said.
“He has a keen sense of humour that only certain people get.”
Murphy calls her brother’s treatment “cruel” and “unkind.” She said she tried to find out why the home wouldn’t take him back even though there was no medical reason for him to remain at the hospital.
She called his care co-ordinator, a professional with the Department of Opportunities and Social Development that handles his case file. Murphy said she was told the home cited safety concerns but she was provided few details.
She said her brother had previously been sent to the ER three times since October but doctors on each occasion found no medical reason to keep him in hospital. Staff at Koster Huis noted he had trouble swallowing, was unsteady on his feet and was dealing with some incontinence issues, she said.
“The words that the administrator used to me was that the staff were mentally and physically exhausted from looking after Brent,” said Murphy.
She said she had her brother’s care co-ordinator complete an assessment of his needs and though it was determined Beaton required more personal care, he still met the criteria to stay in a small option home.
Murphy said Koster Huis was offered more resources to help keep him in the home, including additional staff, but the administration never made the request.
The idea of putting Beaton into long-term care was raised in the fall. Murphy said she told Koster Huis administration she and her siblings would discuss the matter in the new year but she asked that he not be subjected to any more unnecessary ER trips before Christmas. Just days later, he was taken to the hospital, where he has remained since then.
The municipal housing corporation declined the CBC’s request for an interview. In a statement, CEO Frank Nelson said “small option homes do not operate within a clinical care model, and staff are not equipped to manage complex or escalating medical needs.”
“We take our responsibilities to residents and their families seriously and remain committed to operating in a manner that prioritizes safety, respects individual rights and aligns with the goals and recommendations of the Human Rights Remedy.”
But Murphy argues that since Beaton has not been receiving any medical treatment at the hospital, he does not have complex medical needs.
The Department of Opportunities and Social Development could not speak to Beaton’s case due to confidentiality issues. However, Maria Medioli, the executive director of the province’s disability support program, explained how cases are handled when staff at a home feel they no longer have the resources to care for someone.
“Normally nobody would be pushing anybody, you know, telling somebody they have to leave immediately,” she said.
Medioli said the person’s support planner would first be contacted to explain what was happening, then the department would offer supports to try to keep the person in their preferred home, which in many instances proves successful.
Looking for accountability
Murphy believes her brother’s situation runs counter to the goals of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Remedy, one of which is to have people with disabilities supported in the community in homes like Koster Huis rather than in large institutions.
Murphy said she complained last week to the Opportunities and Social Development Department.
“I’m really anxious for somebody to be held accountable for something that I think was discrimination against a defenceless, vulnerable man,” she said.
Unable to find any openings for Beaton at a small option home in his community, Murphy has his name on a waiting list for long-term care. But she thinks that represents a backward step in his care, particularly because of the poorer staff-to-resident ratio at long-term care facilities.
She had hoped he would be put on a priority list to get into a seniors’ home in Port Hawkesbury but she was told that would not be the case. She does not know how long he will remain in the hospital.
Despite that, she said her brother is in good spirits.
“He’s eating his meals, he’s walking around, he seems quite happy there.… We try to visit him at least once a week,” Murphy said.
“We try our best to keep his cheer up and to make sure he knows that we care for him.”
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