New Zealand’s Largest Intellectual Disability Service Provider Charged After Vulnerable Woman Drowned In Bathroom While In His Care

A vulnerable woman in the care of New Zealand’s largest service provider for people with intellectual disabilities drowned in the bathroom, the New Plymouth District Court has heard.

WorkSafe New Zealand alleges that Idea Services Limited, the service arm of IHC New Zealand, failed to meet its health and safety obligations, exposing Vicki Campbell to the risk of death and serious injury.

WorkSafe understood that Idea’s defense was that Campbell’s right to dignity, independence, autonomy and privacy meant that it was not reasonably feasible for her staff to supervise her while she was in the bathroom, the court was told.

The charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act of 2015 carries a maximum fine of $ 1.5 million.

Campbell, who had been in Idea’s care since 2006, died on October 8, 2016, after being left alone in a bathroom at the defendant’s community residential support center in Waitara, north of New Plymouth.

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Initially, she had been supported by Idea, which has a contract with the Ministry of Health to provide support services for the disabled, in a shared accommodation, but moved into the facility in 2015 due to increased mental and physical health needs. .

The care support worker found the 63-year-old woman face down and unconscious. An autopsy report concluded that the cause of death “was not incompatible with death by drowning.”

The trial, which began Monday, will be heard only before Judge Jim Large.

Trina Williams-McIlroy, who appeared before WorkSafe, said the defendant had a duty to ensure the health and safety of service users.

“That is, providing supervision, supervision, or assistance with activities of daily living and personal care to service users,” Williams-McIlroy said.

Idea failed to fulfill that duty when it failed to adequately address the risks associated with bathing Campbell, who had a grieving diagnosis of intellectual disability and bipolar disorder, and in doing so exposed her to a risk of death or serious harm, he said. .

“Specifically, it is the case with the prosecution that Ms. Campbell was a vulnerable user of the service who required 24-hour individual support from the defendant, even while bathing.”

Williams-McIlroy said that while the evidence would focus on the Campbell case, WorkSafe’s position was that the details raised were symptomatic of broader systemic issues.

WorkSafe claimed there were five reasonably feasible actions that Idea did not take, it said.

These included the development and implementation of effective policies and procedures to manage the hazards associated with bathing vulnerable service users in their care and assessing individual users for the risks specific to them.

Williams-McIlroy said it was not the first time a service user had drowned in the bathroom while in Idea’s care. A 15-year-old in a respite care center died in 2014 when he was left alone in the bathroom after receiving medications with a sedative effect.

Idea was prosecuted as an employer for failing to take all possible steps to ensure that no action or inaction by any employee at work would harm another person.

He pleaded guilty and, in sentencing in 2015, the court pointed to a number of flaws with respect to his risk management of users of restroom services.

Williams-McIlroy said many of the alleged failures in Campbell’s case mirrored those of 2014, where the judge acknowledged that the high needs of service users meant a difficult balance was required, but said it “has yet to be achieved.”

The trial is scheduled for two weeks, but Judge Large said he would not deliver an oral decision at the end, but would reserve his trial.