Care assistant suspended for abusing elderly service user

An experienced care assistant who physically and verbally abused an elderly service user in Northern Ireland has been suspended from practising for six months.

Charles Trevor Doey shouted at the service user during a repeated attempt to drag the person’s chair out of a room, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council’s conduct committee was told.

Doey had also forcefully placed the service user’s feet on to a footstool. He drew out his hand as if to strike the service user, but then tapped the person on the side of the leg.

“This physical contact was inappropriate and amounted to physical abuse,” the committee found.

On another occasion, Doey sent a service user’s bag flying across a room and threw a pair of slippers at the client’s feet.

Doey was dismissed from his job in June 2010 after an internal disciplinary.

The committee said it was “deeply concerned” about the seriousness of the misconduct in this case, particularly in light of Doey’s 24 years in social care and his failure to admit any wrongdoing during the investigation.

Doey had never previously been the subject of a referral to the NISCC. He submitted references to the committee and revealed he had recently attended a training course on managing challenging behaviour and physical intervention.

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