A 'chemical cosh' is a treatment where patients with challenging behaviour are given powerful sedatives to subdue them.
It is only supposed to be used as a last resort, but a recent investigation by the Irish Times found that up to one in three residents in Irish nursing homes are being given psychotropic drug, and that the side effects could be linked to dozens of deaths.
One woman explained to Newstalk Lunchtime how 'chemical restraints' applied to father in nursing home resulted in serious deterioration in his health leading up to his death.
Alice became increasingly worried about her father, who suffered from Alzheimer's, when she visited him in a HSE-run institution, and asked to see a copy of his medical records.
The records showed her father was receiving an anti-psychotic medication she had specifically requested not to be used.
While in home care, such medication had resulted in serious side-effects, such as stumbling and hallucinating.
She says a manager confirmed that he was benig given Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug not authorised for use among over-65s or those suffering from Alzheimer's.
In addition, he was given benzodiazepines, antiepileptic medication (he did not have epilepsy), antidepressants and sleeping tablets on a regular basis. Sedatives were first administered at 7am, leaving him unable to wake until lunch-time.
"His care plan was not discussed with us; we had no idea of the drugs he was on. When you go into a HSE-run home, they take over the script and they use their own GP. It means families don’t have any input or control over their relatives care.
"I just feel they took ownership of my father. I don’t blame the staff, I blame the management… [for] creating a world of nothingness for him. They never managed him, they just controlled him. We would never have put him into the home if we’d known how he’d be treated.
"He’d lost weight and had gone from being upright and steady on his feet to being hunched over and very unsteady.
"They just kept telling us he needed it, we weren’t listened to and we were actually laughed at," she said.
"I asked could they at least bring him to Church and they said it would be too much of a hassle."
Alice wrote a letter of concern to the HSE, who issued a report which did not uphold any of her complaints.It was decided to move him to another home, where he was eventually given a similar medication.
During one visit, family members found her father in a coma, and he was immediately brought to a hospital
Over the seven-weeks spent there due to sepsis and dehydration, his medication was greatly reduced by doctors there:
"He came to life. It was like another person.
"[However] when he returned to the nursing home, his dosage was increased again and he died within three weeks.
"You can’t keep giving a drug to someone who is having a bad reaction to it. Morally it’s wrong," she added.
"In Dad’s case, they just continued to medicate, irrespective of what we said."
Listen to the full interview below:
