The Iowa law designed to protect dependent adults from abuse was last updated in 2008, before many social media apps existed. It bars “sexual exploitation of a dependent adult by a caretaker,” which would have applied if the photo showed the resident’s genitals. It didn’t.
The nurse assistant was fired from Hubbard Care Center after a co-worker reported her to supervisors, but the state was unable to discipline her at all. She remains eligible to work in any nursing home in the state. Government documents did not name her.
“This was something no one expected,” said David Werning, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, of the case. The nurse assistant had used Snapchat to send the photo of the resident, who has dementia, to six colleagues, along with the caption “shit galore,” according to government reports.
Following ProPublica’s earlier coverage, Sen. Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters to social media companies and federal agencies asking what they are doing to stop the abuse. He’s taken Snapchat, in particular, to task because he said its online tool for reporting suspected abuse requires the affected person to file a complaint — a near impossibility for elderly people with dementia.
“When an individual tries to report a safety concern on behalf of someone else, say, an elderly nursing home resident, the tool produces the message: ‘We are unable to take action based on third-party reports,’” Grassley wrote to Snapchat on June 28. “An elderly nursing home resident victim is unlikely to have his or her own Snapchat account or have the knowledge or ability necessary to report abusive snaps on his or her own behalf.”