(no subject)

[verbminx]

NYC didn't need rain THAT soon. I realize I said I thought it was needed to clear the air (literally... to get some of the dust out of the air so that people could breathe), but I also said that I hoped it could hold off until everyone who could possibly be rescued alive was recovered. :(

I'm off to the bookstore to get a locking diary for my grandmother. This is the second try... the first one we bought has a broken lock. The aides at her nursing home read her diary the other day... she writes everything down, good or bad... and she got in trouble for something that was misinterpreted (specifically, she referred to an African-American aide as "the black one"). Sigh. This is not as bad as the nursing home she was in before, where an aide dragged her across the floor by her hair because she asked for bathroom help. That diary is being sent to the DA in her area, if we can talk her into it.

Comments

[bookfoole.livejournal.com]

If the aide did that to her --he/she did it to others too and will continue to treat patients that way --it should be reported --I'm sure an investigation will come up with other witnesses too.

By the way, be careful --most locking diaries are for children and are easily open (even without the key). I occassionally get them turned in (years later), and they are ridiculously easy to open.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

on point A - i agree. and i think this aide referred to past allegations against her as proof of how pointless it supposedly was to make any.

on point B - well, the idea isn't really to have a secure locking diary, just something that is a deterrent. I told my mom that i thought it would be better to buy her mother a locking briefcase or something, or even just a cheap backpack with a combination lock. i just think ppl are less likely to try to read something that has a lock on it. and less likely to bother if it's locked.

i have a locking diary that uses tiny luggage locks; the one on it isn't very secure but you could easily add a decent combination lock in the same place. problem is that the locks loop through a little wire latch mechanism, and it's just too hard for an elderly person to handle, because you have to get one tiny loop hooked through another. my mom pulled something out (we are a house full of blank books) and it looks like it will work. lately, though, it seems like with the elastic-banded journals or journals that have a little flap that folds over the edge of the pages and snaps to the front cover, not many locking diaries much larger than palm-sized (IE, the thing for little kids) are even being made.

[bookfoole.livejournal.com]

If there were multiple complaints about this person from severable sources and the nursing home knew about them --then you might be able to go after a civil remedy (if you have the stomach for it --though often, if you aren't asking for much you might get a settlement of some sort). I would also file a police report --numerous independent reports make a pattern --each successive report makes it more difficult to not arrest the individual.