I am working with an organisation who provide care to clients in their own homes. The care staff are predominantly female and most of the work requires only one carer so they work alone. A large proportion of the client group are elderly.

We have recently had a case where one male client aged 92 has sexually harassed / assaulted a female carer. He made crude suggestions, and then groped her breasts. This has been dealt with as a serious incident, the care package has been reviewed, we are offering the carer support and counselling and have taken all necessary steps to sort this case out so I am not after advice about this particular incident.

In investigating this matter however it has come to light that many of our carers are experiencing clients making crude comments or suggestions and doing things such as “patting their bottoms”. No one has made a complaint before and when we recently talked to staff they have made coments to the effect of “but he’s an old man” or “they all talk like that, it is their age”

I don’t think that this is acceptable and I am concerned that as an organisation we shouldn’t be allowing a culture where this type of behaviour is seen as okay. Also that as in this one case, sometimes things go further or a member of staff quite rightly isn’t prepared to tolerate this behaviour.

Given that most of the current staff appear to see no problem with the way things are and that we would be tackling the ingrained habits of the client group does anyone have any advice about how to deal with this?

Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?

All ideas gratefully received!

Sam
Sam Swinstead