Five staff members at Pioneer Manor – some of whom are long-term employees – have been fired for sharing inappropriate images of 10 residents on Snapchat.
Catherine Matheson, the city's GM of community development, said Wednesday that the investigation started when a staff person came forward with concerns that some employees were taking pics of residents inside the city's long-term care home and sharing them on the social media platform.
"That was investigated over a period of about a week-and-a-half and we concluded that, just in the last couple of days, as a result of that we did find there was a breach of privacy of the residents of Pioneer Manor -- 10 individual residents by five persons," Matheson said.
"Those staff persons have since had their employment terminated at the manor as a result of this infraction of the policy."
The photos were taken and posted over the last couple of months, she added. Snapchat photos disappear soon after you view them, but screenshots can easily be taken to make them permanent.
As far as they are aware, the images weren't shared on any other social media, she said. This is the first such incident they are aware of at the Manor.
"Absolutely, this is the first we're aware of that has occurred,” Matheson said. “It was an isolated event and certainly that's why we took it very, very seriously."
Greater Sudbury Police Services have been brought in to investigate, she said, which is standard procedure in these sorts of incidents."In any matters like this involving residents in terms of breach of privacy, we're highly regulated by the Ministry of Health,” she said. “So we refer the matter to police services for further review of the facts and to make an determinations they wish, and move forward as they wish."
Matheson wouldn't discuss the nature of the photos or anything about their content.
"They were a violation of privacy and they were inappropriate,”she said. “Anything further than that, I would be getting into a breach, as well. So to protect the residents' privacy, that's as far as we can go."
The fact the breaches were committed by veteran staff who should have known better is particularly upsetting, she said.
"Unfortunately, there were a few that were longstanding employees,” Matheson said. “We'd be surprised by this action by anybody, but yes, there were a couple of employees that were long-term employees."
Resident safety was never an issue and a consultant is being brought in to review the rules with staff and ensure everyone knows the rules.
"We hold ourselves to a high standard of care at Pioneer Manor,” she said. “With respect to this, we're about to bring in a third party to come in and take a look at how we communicate our policies and how staff understand those policies to make sure we're doing the very best we can to prevent this from ever happening again."
