MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation
07/17/2015
Jennifer Haselberger
This week has seen another wave of disheartening reports about the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. From updated information about the number of claims filed to the addition of more than a hundred parishes as claimants to the ongoing controversy about the filing deadline, there has been much to trouble us. However, the story that I found most disturbing was the confirmed abuse of elderly and vulnerable residents at Saint Therese nursing home in New Hope.
Earlier this week the Star Tribune reported that two nursing assistants employed at Saint Therese were arrested after family members of residents used hidden cameras to uncover and report the assistants’ physical abuse of the residents. In addition to the abuse caught on camera, family members of at least two residents reported having seen numerous bruises and cuts that were ‘too numerous to ignore’. St Therese responded by firing the two nursing assistants as well nine others who the facility believes failed to report the abuse or otherwise violated the terms of the care they were to be providing.
The Star Tribune report also noted that this is the second time in less than a year that a Saint Therese facility has been investigated for alleged abuse of a resident. According to the report, in early 2014 a staff member at Saint Therese at Oxbow Lake slapped a resident who was suffering from severe dementia. And, many of you will recall that in 2009 Archdiocesan priest and military chaplain Father Tim Vakoc died following a fall he sustained while a resident of the St Therese, New Hope facility. Vakoc, who was critically injured while serving with the Army in Iraq, died when two nursing assistants caused him to fall head-first to the floor as they were transferring him from his wheelchair to his bed. A subsequent investigation by the Office of Health Facility Complaints determined that the nursing assistants were negligent in their care of Vakoc and responsible for his fall.
This type of failure to care for and protect the elderly and vulnerable is abhorrent anywhere, but it is especially disturbing when it occurs at a Catholic institution. Saint Therese has been a ministry of the Catholic Church since its establishment, with the permission of the Archdiocese, in 1964. Moreover, with the rapid expansion of Catholic facilities for the elderly, and especially the increase in the development of senior housing and nursing facilities on parish campuses, the Church must ensure that the services it is providing truly reflect its core belief in the dignity of all people.
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