Furious response to 95-yr-old woman tasered by police
A 95-year-old woman with dementia is in critical condition after being tasered by police officers at her aged care home.
Clare Nowland, a mother of eight, was reportedly found by staff holding a knife at Yallambee Lodge near Cooma. Nursing home workers then called police before officers attempted to disarm the great-grandmother.
A critical incident investigation has since been launched by the New South Wales Police, with police commissioner Karen Webb confirming that it will be subject to independent review.
“My thoughts are with the family at this difficult time,” she said in a statement. "I understand and share the community’s concerns and assure you that we are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness."
And while the police look into the incident, a group representing people with disabilities - People with Disability Australia - has criticised the steps taken by police at the aged care facility.
"She’s either one hell of an agile, fit, fast, and intimidating 95-year-old woman, or there’s a very poor lack of judgement on those police officers and there really needs to be some accountability on their side of this," the organisation’s president, Nicole Lee, said.
“This woman, an older woman of 95, needed somebody to de-escalate the situation with her and to talk to her, and to handle her with compassion and time and not tasers.
"Clearly, there's not enough training for police around de-escalation tactics for people with psychosis or Alzheimer's or dementia, for people living with psychosocial disability, autism, or schizophrenia, or anything like that."
She went on to note that more needed to be done within the aged-care sector itself to handle incidents that involved people with dementia without the use of force, and that the actions by police officers in Cooma demonstrates “a failure of protocols” or perhaps a “lack of resources or understanding on their behalf on the service's behalf on how to handle this situation."
Margaret Crothers, a spokesperson for NSW Seniors Rights Service, added that commenting on the case was no easy feat without more information - especially with Clare’s family declining to comment on the situation - but agreed that what transpired did not reflect “normal practice”.
“It must raise concerns,” she said, “no one wants their grandmother or their mother tasered.
“Everyone is concerned about the use of restraint and certainly the use of force from either police or staff and it’s just something that everyone is mindful of in aged care."
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