My mom is in assisted living and I have a suspicion that the staff, or perhaps a resident, is taking her money. I need something that won’t look out of place and isn’t easily disabled, maybe it plays possum when unplugged but has battery backup. Anyone have any advice?
There are hidden cameras that look like power strips.
Wyze cameras are really cheap.
Just remember that if the staff find out that you apparently trust none of them and believe that they are - potentially - thieves there is a possibility that the level and quality of care your mother receives could diminish. Also, I assume you’ve checked the legality of filming this way in your jurisdiction.
On the other hand it can lead to the nursing home ending the contract due to this - hidden surveillance of staff is definitely a reason to do so. They can also prohibit OP from entering the premises.
Yes. Absolutely. If someone questioned my staff’s honesty and DIDN’T BRING IT TO MY ATTENTION FIRST, I wouldn’t want them as customers.
And you don’t understand how they might worry that you’d be in on it, or that coming to you with no evidence might be fruitless?
Yeah. It would be a crime in my jurisdiction anyway, but nevertheless basically every nursing home administration I worked with (and I have nursing homes in 7 countries as clients) would instantly react massively to a relative doing this.
We would advise them to ban the relative from entering the premises and then discuss if the contract should be cancelled. That very much depends on the individual circumstances - if it is a distant relative who is simply intrusive it’s a different story to a situation when the offender is the main contact for the client, also the expected remaining contract time (in other words how long a patient is expected to live) should be considered.In special circumstances (dying patient) supervised visits of said relative may be considered.
That seems completely reasonable. I, personally, would support such a stance from any care home. If you don’t trust us enough to broach a subject with us I wouldn’t want you as a client.
That seems completely reasonable.
It seems completely unreasonable to me. If a person wants a security camera in their home, they should be allowed to have one.
Thinking of that room as your staff’s workplace makes me wonder if you’ve forgotten it’s also someone’s home.
I don’t think this is true. Most people in health and elder care would rather do their job than risk getting fired or sued because of a rude client.
I’m not suggesting for one second that the mother would have a negative care experience. I’m just stating the obvious that some people would no longer do those extra little things. I notice in some of the care homes I go to that some residents are called by name and some are referred to by room number. All of them have their needs met - just some are treated more compassionately and others are treated only professionally.
So no, they’re not getting all their needs met?
Working to rule vs working for people.
Put in a non-hidden camera.
This. Go ahead and tell everyone that you are worried about your mother and would like to see her anytime and check on her for your own peace of mind. Post a clear, preferably large, sign up front that there’s an active camera in the room. But do not insist on it. That’ll tell you all you need to know about the staff very quickly.
For the camera, use a regular old wifi-enabled baby monitor (App-controlled for best results) and connect it to a mobile Internet router. These routers have internal logs - learn how to access them, then check them (remotely, after setting up security in them) at intervals for suspicious reboot events.
No nursing home worth their money would and should allow this…
Why the hell not?
Did you Google this? They have cameras that look like phone chargers. Also, install a non hidden camera and a hidden one.
Im curious what you mean by “plays possum”. Because if it doesn’t have a battery backup it wont work very well unplugged. Been looking at cameras for the house lately, and have yet to find one that flips over and sticks its legs in the air when unplugged.
Maybe he meant the red indicator light turns off when it’s unplugged but continues recording until the battery runs out
That’s how I read what they wrote.
You don’t have any other idea to check if the thing is happening?
Do you have any ideas? How would you detect theft of cash when the owner of the cash doesn’t trust their own memory?
Hide behind the curtain?
