CONTACT FORM SUBMITTED AT: https://mycompletecare.com/contact

NAME: Valerie Pena

EMAIL: vpena326@gmail.com

COMPANY: Self-employed

TYPE OF INQUIRY: Resident & Family Support

FACILITY: 

 	* Whispering Woods [https://mycompletecare.com/ccwhisperingwoods] 

MESSAGE: 
I witnessed bullying against my dad this morning while I was visiting
him. 

The incident took place in the facility in Edison on Saturday, 5-2-26,
at 10:30 am.

We were seated in the Bistro. 

After 10 am, my dad, resident Damian Andrisano, left the bistro to go
up to the wellness center to receive his morning meds. 

About 10:20 am, he came off the elevator and made his was back to me
in the bistro. He passed behind the row of chairs that were facing the
grand staircase, with their backs to the main desk. In the last chair,
closest to the entrance of the facility, was father John. 

As my father rolled past behind the last chair, I heard him calmly
say, ‘How are you doing today, father John?’. At that point,
Father John turned around in his chair and angrily yelled to my dad,
‘You stay away from me!’.

My day turned his wheelchair slightly to the right to face the
staircase and calmly replied to father John, ‘Why are you speaking
that way to me?’

Father John began to yell even louder, in an accusatory tone, calling
him names and telling my dad, ‘You are only back from the hospital
one day, and you are already causing trouble!’ 

My father replied, ‘I didn’t do anything except say hello to you.
Why are you treating me this way?’ 

At this point, because of all of father John’s loud behavior,
residents are now all looking at them. 

A young man who works in recreation, his name is James, came over and
told my dad to just keep moving and to stop all of this
back-and-forth. My dad asked, ‘Why won’t you listen to me?’, at
which point the gentleman responded, ‘I’m not here to take sides.
Just don’t go near him’.

At that point, I spoke to James and told him that I was an eye-witness
to the entire incident, and reported exactly what had happened. 

He repeated to me that he does not want to take sides, and I let him
know that I wanted him to have an accurate account of what transpired
between the two men. 

Katlove now walked into the area, and I gave her the details of the
events that had happened. She reassured me that she would bring the
incident up to the administrator. 

I also spoke to Carmen at the front desk, who admitted that she heard
father John yelling, but that she was helping someone at the time and
was not paying attention to what was being said. 

My reason for writing is to let the administrator know that bullying
is continuing to take place by a resident in your facility towards my
father, and to give an accurate, eye-witness account of what had taken
place here this morning. Am also aware that this is not an isolated
event against my father. 

I also feel the need to strongly remind administration that no one
should be subjected to this type of abuse, and the fact that this is
happening in your facility, makes you responsible for preventing it. 

You are responsible not only the safety of your residents, but also
for putting the appropriate policies and consequences in place for
those who are guilty of this totally unacceptable behavior to make
sure that it does not happen again. 

As an administrator, I would think you would want your facility to be
a safe space for staff, residents and visitors, alike. I am sorry to
say that what I have experienced by visiting here, witnessing events
and hearing the accounts of the abuse and bullying my father has
reported to me and to my sisters over the past months, that you are
falling short of your responsibilities in this matter, to say the
least. 

The fact that, when I made my father aware of the email I was sending
to administration, his response was, ‘Thank you for doing that, but
based on previous experience, nothing will be done about it’, speaks
volumes about the kind of leadership and advocation brought about by
the current administration in this facility. 
My own father does not have any trust in administration advocating on
his behalf, because there has been no evidence of it happening for him
on past occasions.

I expect to hear the details of the policies that will be put into
place to not only address the past and current incidents of bullying
that had taken place, but also what you plan to do to ensure that
these policies will consistently be enforced and reinforced to prevent
behavior and incidents like this from happening to anyone in the
future. 

Valerie Peña
