Abuse of Veterans continues at the veterans home.

Despite the reassurances of the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans top administrator Sara Dunne, and the Michigan VA chief of staff James Dunn,  abuse of veterans by J2S workers continues.

The most common form of this abuse is Veterans who have soiled themselves, being left to sit in that condition for hours on end, even after the staff is made aware that a veteran needs help.

Today, it was reported to me that a visitor was on a veteran's unit and found a man who had soiled himself.  Near by was one of the care givers from J2S. When told about the situation the care giver just stayed sitting in a chair until the visitor demanded she get off her arse and help the man or face termination. Another veteran was in the main dining hall for the facility with soiled pants, while eating lunch. Nothing was done by the staff to help him.

Other abuse continues by care givers going into the Veterans rooms in the middle of the night, and turning on all the lights, waking up the veterans to see if they were asleep or not. One woke up a man to see if he had wet himself without first checking his chart - as he had a catheter and thus was unable to do so. So basically she woke him up for no reason. This happens a lot, I am told because care givers or nursing does not check charts before they attempt to wake up veterans.

Also reported, is the med's nurse's refusal to use rubber gloves when handling medication. Only upon threat of a report to the FDA by a visitor, did the Nurse put on gloves.

Also, over medicating of veterans now seems to be the normal operating standard at the home, according to family members.

Veterans are also telling me, that money won at 2 West Michigan White Caps (local A club baseball team), sponsored Bingo's has yet to be deposited into the veterans bank accounts. This is more money that is disappearing because of lack of proper safeguards in the way the home does its book keeping.

One good note to report: Veterans are telling me that the menu is changing at the home.. And the food there is finally improving. Not as fast as it needs to, but several have said they have enjoyed some of the new meals being tried out.  I am glad the home is finally addressing that issue.