Following multiple convictions for rape in elderly care facilities across Sweden, the Pensioners' National Organization (PRO) is urging the government to take immediate action. PRO calls for mandatory criminal background checks for care workers to protect vulnerable elderly residents.
PRO Demands Government Action After Alarming Elderly Care Rape Cases
PRO Demands Government Action After Alarming Elderly Care Rape Cases
Following the conviction of several men for raping elderly residents in care homes across the country, the Pensioners' National Organization (PRO) is now pressuring the government.
Stockholm, Timrå, Kungälv, Varberg – municipalities nationwide are reporting alarming incidents of care workers raping women with dementia.
– It is absolutely appalling. We need to protect those who are most vulnerable in the places where they should feel safest, says Christine Cars-Ingels, Secretary General of the Pensioners' National Organization (PRO).
The latest conviction is of Ali Hassan Zada, who received a six-year prison sentence for raping a woman with dementia in a care home in Värmland.
Earlier this year, former Green Party politician Angel Villaverde was convicted of raping an 80-year-old woman in her home in Timrå municipality, where he worked in home care. In Kungälv, a man is suspected of similar crimes – for the second time.
According to Christine Cars-Ingels, the number of unreported cases is significant.
– There seems to be a culture of silence. When people try to raise alarms, they are not always taken seriously, she says, urging elderly individuals who feel threatened to report to the police and contact the Women's Peace Line.
Demand to the Government
Christine Cars-Ingels states that there is concern among PRO members, something she particularly noticed after 84-year-old Elsa came forward about being raped by a home care worker in Uppsala.
– If we do not invest properly in elderly care, such incidents risk happening repeatedly, she says, adding that PRO wants the government to make criminal background checks mandatory.
– We have contacted the Government Offices, but holidays are delaying a response on when it might become mandatory. However, this issue does not take a holiday. We must take it very seriously, she says.
"Heartbreaking"
Individual municipalities also have a responsibility to address the issue, which not enough of them are doing, according to Christine Cars-Ingels.
Kerstin Evelius, section chief at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR), writes in an email to Expressen:
"Each such incident is unacceptable and horrific, and it is of utmost importance that municipalities continue to develop their work with Lex Sarah to identify risks and prevent this from happening."
Christine Cars-Ingels says that everything possible must be done to prevent these crimes.
What would you like to say to the women who have been subjected to such violent crimes?
– It breaks my heart to hear that they have been subjected to this, and we must do everything we can to ensure it does not happen to anyone else in elderly care. I hope the perpetrators receive their punishment for this, says Christine Cars-Ingels.