Published Monday, 24 January 2011
Patricia Young, 54, from Mandeville Avenue in Lisburn, was employed to care for Mrs Ivy McCluskey, 70, an Alzheimer sufferer and stroke survivor who had lost her speech.
She appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court on Friday charged with ill-treatment on the basis of video evidence gathered by the family.
Young, who pleaded guilty to two charges of "guardian ill-treating a mental patient", will be sentenced on 22 February.
Relatives of Mrs McCluskey noticed she was losing weight and could hear her stomach rumbling from hunger when they put her to bed at night.
They installed a hidden camera to monitor Young as she attended the pensioner at her home in Lisburn and discovered that the care worker was eating their mother's lunch, which her daughter had left prepared for her.
Mrs McCluskey's family say their mother died within 12 weeks of the footage being recorded in October 2009.
Young was employed by the Trust through an agency contract.
The South Eastern Trust apologised on Monday "for the unacceptable standard of care provided to Mrs McCluskey."
"The Trust contracts with Rodgers Community Care, an Independent Domiciliary Care Provider to provide domiciliary care to clients in the South Eastern Trust," a statement explained.
"All domiciliary care providers are registered with Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA). In order to acquire registration a number of standards must be achieved.
"These standards include the provision of training to protect Vulnerable Adults."
The Trust said they wanted to "reassure older people receiving care services that most domiciliary care workers are 100% committed to providing a high standard of care".
"There are stringent policies and procedures in place to protect vulnerable people and that domiciliary care providers are tightly regulated by RQIA."
"Each care worker is vetted by Access NI before they can commence such a role, due to the fact that they provide one to one care. It is regrettable that this individual care worker behaved in appropriately in this case."
The Trust confirmed there had been a series of meetings between senior Trust Officers and Mrs McCluskey's family to support them "through this difficult time."