Amber Osage: Police Say Cranky Caretaker Repeatedly Slugs Paralyzed Patient

• Thanks y'all, for steering the conversation where I hoped it would go. There is a method to my madness. At least I like to think so....

• I didn' t say abuse didn't happen with home-health agencies. In fact, I said my Mrs. inspects these agencies for Medicare/Medicaid as well as DADS compliance. Which of course would not be necessitated unless there wasn't a long history of problems. My contention, is very similar to the fine points you make. Except, a violent felon cannot be certified as a nurses assistant in Texas. And, as bad as agency staff can be, as limited/thin as oversight is, there is oversight and the agencies are bonded. Meanwhile, my Mrs. is seeing more and more uncertified, untrained, and inexperienced people, (as well people who've had their certifications revoked) taking these jobs out of desperation. I still don't think this chick holds a certification or works through an agency.

• Disagree.  See plenty of of this going on with state-funded agency employees, too.  Care-giving is a low-paying job and even though it is very hard, demanding work, the positions are filled generally with "unskilled" workers; i.e., those who will work long hours for low wages in a job that is unrewarding financially and emotionally.  As Health & Human Services and other agency budgets are cut, experienced care-givers are finding themselves over priced for the market and agencies are looking to replace them with younger, less-skilled workers.  Care-giving is also a physically demanding job, so younger care-givers will almost always be favored over more mature care-givers who may find the rigors of the job too much.   And as your Mrs. can tell you, oversight is (and always has been) stretched incredibly thin with too few inspectors and too many cases. And for the disabled, many of whom are practically shut-ins, their care-givers are the only people they see on a daily basis, so like battered spouses and lonely grandmas, they won't report the abuse because they are afraid of being completely abandoned or forced into a state-run home.   

• Oh pleez. This is Hair Balls, not Le Monde.

• "After glancing at her lengthy criminal record, one wonders how she ever got this gig at all." This IS the story that's lost in the cute remarks.  My Mrs. inspects agencies providing care to home-bound patients receiveing state and/or federal healthcare assistance. She's told me horror stories of abuse, (verbal, physical, and financial) that patients endured from "independent" care providers. Often these folks are either relatives (of some degree) or off the fringe, like this chick. I'd lay dollars to donuts Ms. Osage got this gig because she worked outside of a regulated agency and therefore, she worked cheap, especially if she was a live-in care provider. Family often does not screen or ask tough questions in the interest of getting the burden off their backs. If the patient is hiring the person directly, they're often content with any story given, lack the resorces to rigorously screen, or sadly, are so starved for attention, they go along to get along.

• Aren't you a lil old to be putting in teenage slang, or are you actually 16?  Amirite?  Not if you ever want to be looked at as a serious journalist.

• Isn't she one of Gregory Longoria, Jr.'s ex-girlfriends?

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