UK - Possible harassment towards my Dad’s carers.
Legal/police advice. Myself, mother and father live together in rural Lincolnshire. I moved back into the family home from living 200 miles away for 23 years, to help take some of the pressure off my Mum (around 6 months ago). I work full time. My father has late stage dementia and has a number of carers who attend him 4 times daily (2 carers per visit). He has been entirely bedbound for over 2 years.
Yesterday one carer (who is Indian) was approached by a woman and two men at a bus stop. The woman accused him of following her teenage daughter.
He nor any of my father’s other carers have ever done anything like this at all - when in the village they are mostly either in our home or making their way to another care visit via car/bus. The other carers with vehicles sometimes rest in their vehicles between visits.
They’ve been caring for my Dad for 2+ years, they are conscientious, caring and feel like part of the family.
Although I was not present at the confrontation, the carer has reported that he was physically blocked from getting on two buses and that the conversation lasted 30-40 minutes. The woman insisted on him telling her information about his employment and that he show her his ID. She photographed his ID. She also wanted to send him a video she had taken of his colleague parked in the village (we believe that she thought that he and his colleague were the same person). So she now also has his phone number. He was scared and intimidated, he should not have shared his ID/number, he appreciates that now but was totally freaked out having been surrounded by people. To our knowledge she has not lodged a complaint with the police (he has not been contacted) so seemed to just be taking her incorrect suspicions into her own hands.
I believe to make unfounded accusations publicly and to confront someone like this was intimidatory and wanted to inform the police of the event so called 101 and made a statement (with the carers blessing). I have an incident number.
The carer has expressed a wish to make a statement to the police via phone today.
I feel absolutely sickened about this - anyone in the UK ever been through anything similar or have any advice. Unfortunately I have doubts about how supportive the care company will be.
I’m not going to write this down but I think you can read between the lines on why she felt she could treat him like this…