LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Happening this week, a hearing before state lawmakers on the need to allow families to put cameras in the rooms of their loved ones in Nevada facilities caring for the elderly or disabled. Currently, they are only allowed in skilled nursing facilities. Those behind the effort are asking others to join them.
“We’re left with the horrible guilt of having put her in these situations…in these “A” rated facilities where you know she’s basically tortured,” shared Peggy Stephenson, a supporter of AB 368. Stephenson has been fighting for years to get her 94-year-old mother into a care facility she can trust. She says she was neglected and abused by those who were supposed to care for her.
“There were three people that were banned from taking care of my mother because they hurt her,” Stephenson revealed. After six facilities in six years, she finally has found somewhere she trusts but Stephenson knows there are many other families constantly worrying what is going on inside the walls of a care facilities.
“There are untold numbers, untold stories,” Stephenson argued. She wants there to be cameras accessible 24/7.
“Schools now have live stream video that parents can log into and watch their kids all day long…you can log in, live stream video of your pets that you love. But you can’t watch your family that you love. You can’t protect them,” Stephenson contended.
“Their own personal camera installed only looking at their loved one’s personal area, i.e. their bed, their sleeping arrangements,” explained Assemblyman Max Carter II who represents east Las Vegas and is sponsoring AB 368. If passed, it would expand existing camera laws in Nevada which currently only apply to skilled nursing facilities.
“It doesn’t include a lot of what I feel is really needed and that’s assisted living, that’s memory care facilities, elder facilities, those types of things… Anything that helps us relieve that anxiety a little bit, it’s worth doing,” Carter asserted.
Stephenson is flying up to Carson City Wednesday to join Carter for the hearing Friday before the Health and Human Services Committee.
If you would like to comment, share your story or you can testify here in person here in Vegas as well. Learn more here: AB368 Meetings
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