Elderly patient's family may sue magazine

The family of an elderly man allegedly pictured on a commode over a toilet are threatening legal action against the photographer and the magazine that published the image.

Senior nurses who care for elderly people expressed their disgust in yesterday's Herald over the pictures of resthome residents, some of them nude or semi-naked, in their union's monthly journal, Kai Tiaki Nursing.

The pictures in the journal, distributed to the Nurses Organisation's 30,000 members, show the work of caregivers - from helping with toileting and showering to feeding residents and having a hug.

They are intended to support a bid to increase caregivers' pay to $14 to $16 an hour, from the present average of around $11.

Some of the residents have died since the photos were taken three to four years ago. The photographer, Alan Knowles, said all the residents in the five-page photo essay gave consent - verbally or in writing - except for one, with dementia, whose family gave verbal consent.

But yesterday, law firm Kensington Swan said the family of the man pictured on a commode with a towel across his lap and being spoon-fed in another photo had not given consent.

The man, who has died since the photos were taken, had severe dementia. His family, who did not want to be identified, considered the images degrading and insulting and said they had caused much stress, especially to the man's widow.

Law firm partner Patrick Mulligan said the family wanted to stop further publication of the photos and to have all undistributed copies of the magazine destroyed or have the photo essay withdrawn.

Legal proceedings might follow, he said, depending on the response from the Nurses Organisation and the photographer to the family's demands.

But Mr Knowles said the law firm's letter named a man who did not appear in the photo essay.

A co-editor of the journal, Anne Manchester, said it was too late to stop its distribution as all copies had now gone out.

National Party senior citizens spokeswoman Sandra Goudie said the pictures of patients being showered, toileted and dressed were elder abuse.

Hamilton woman Josephine Whitehead says her father was one of the people pictured in the journal.

"He was in a dementia unit, and people in those units cannot make informed decisions. We made the decisions for him, and the home were quite aware of that, and our family did not give consent.

"But what's even more horrifying is the fact that when it was taken, my father wasn't communicating, so no way could he have given consent, informed or otherwise. It was in the very last weeks of his life."

She said the family was never approached to give their consent, and seeing the journal was a shock.

"My elderly mother has taken it very badly. What concerns me is in the magazine, alongside the the photos, it's got, 'if you want to be treated right, you have to treat that person with respect and dignity'.

"There's no respect or dignity in publishing these photos. The whole thing was degrading and undignified. they've used these people for reasons we can't understand."

She rejected the suggestion that the family was mistaken and her father was not in the journal.

"Every member of my family has individually identified him, and we've had calls from other people saying, 'that was your father', so it's obvious it's him."

- Additional reporting by Derek Cheng