I think
@Alan79 has worked in a retirement home or something similar before - do the eldery people in there often act up?
Yes they can. Well known feature of dementia impairment. ("Sundowners" a colloquial term used by the staff to explain evening goings on). Can't sleep so wander around. Go into others rooms and can cause disruption to other residents. Having access to finding knives indicates poor security and supervision really. At times the inexperienced staff do that night shift but things have improved since mid 2023 with the Govt demand for better staffing and a qualified nurse being on site.
This kind of incident happens routinely (disruptive, agitated residents) although the fact she had knives is alarmingly telling on that facility IMO. It was very poor supervision and training to handle this situation and I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that the facility my mother was in, and I volunteered in, would ever have needed to call Police to handle a 95 year old with a walking frame.
If the staff are patient and well trained in de-escalating these day to day incidents, then usually it all blows over.
Seems like this incident, every single procedure and security measure put in place to deal with aggitated resi's by Aged Care Homes, was not implemented in the first instance and the (staff thought) quick easy solution was to get the ambos, then Police, to do the job for them.
Mind you it's a very hard job and very emotionally draining and staff need the full support of their employers with training and roster rotation to handle it....unless you're a lazy, uncaring narcissist and there are a few out there...but very few I'd say from my experience.
Most of the time I felt so sorry for the staff and stayed back for "Sundowners" and helping with the evening meal and preparing for bedtime as there was always some drama or other with a resident that threw the staffs routine and tight schedule into chaos...could have been toileting accidents, fights between the men, time consuming disorientation by the women mainly, refusing to eat or drink, severe falls....it takes a very special person to be an excellent carer.
