State analysts from Calif. spent 21 hours in a care home that was forced to shut down to document its horrible conditions including a missing resident.
The analysts did four separate visits to the Castro Valley care home and stayed for long hours walking through the facility. Apparently, the place had been abandoned by both the owners and the trained care giving staff based on the records produced by the state Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
However, the analysts failed to take note of the two men, one is a janitor named Miguel Alvarez and the other is a cook named Maurice Rowlad, who both voluntarily stayed with the 19 abandoned residents even without pay. Neither of them were hired nor trained in providing care in a resident home. The state law reiterates that caregivers should have 10 hours of full training before they tend to residents of care-giving facilities.
According to the records of the Department of Social Services, four analysts from the licensing program visited the site from Oct. 22 to 25 on consecutive days. It should be noted that four days before their first visit, the manager of the center told his workers that they will no longer be compensated.
The job listing of the state department describes that licensing program analysts are tasked to evaluate assisted-living centers, have their reports documented, confirm on the enforcement of laws, and have the initiative to take immediate action if called by the situation.
"There is no supply of adult diapers and a minimal supply of (absorbent) blue pads," wrote Cindie Perryman-French, an analyst. "On this date at least two residents were in soiled diapers and clothing for several hours until another resident volunteered to donate his to his peers. Staff immediately cleaned and changed the residents."
The janitor also described how they took care of more than 19 residents left in the Castro Valley care home after the shutdown despite having no pay for two weeks. People were shouting for help and became distraught after not receiving their medicines.
'I felt bad for them so I helped them,' Alvarez told the San Jose Mercury News.
The missing resident Edmund Bascom, 65, has been found and is now under psychiatric care due to his mental illness. The rest of the abandoned residents were moved to various nursing homes.
