LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Many local families struggle to care for their vulnerable loved ones.
Help can be found in assisted living facilities. However, the elderly and people with disabilities too often suffer abuse and neglect in care homes.
We've all heard the saying a picture is worth a thousand words but pictures and videos also provide protection and expand accountability.
In 2020, Theresa Bigay reached out to me for help after her brother, Henry Owens, was neglected and abused at the Life Care Nursing Home on Harmon and Eastern, where he went after suffering a stroke.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Nursing home nightmare leads to lawsuit against Life Care Center
Photos and videos that Bigay shared with me showed open wounds, sores, and Owens sitting in his own feces for hours, sometimes days at a time.
At one point, the injuries were so bad that Owens had to have a toe amputated.
Owens passed away at age 61 in 2021. However, Bigay fought for change at the state level in his honor. As as result of her fight and our investigation, Henry's Law was passed in 2023, which allows patients and their families to install cameras in their rooms at nursing homes.
"It won't bring my brother back but it will protect and maybe even save the lives of other individuals," Bigay told us after testifying before state lawmakers.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Advocates testify before state lawmakers on Henry's Law
Henry's Law was a start but it's limited and the law has no teeth for enforcement.
On Friday, the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee heard a new bill that seeks to end current limits and create penalties for failing to follow the law.
If passed, Assembly Bill 368 would expand the scope of Henry's Law so cameras can be installed in residents' rooms at any type of assisted or supported living facility, including those that offer support for people with disabilities, intermediate care, skilled nursing homes, individual and group residential care, hospital long-term care units, assisted living services in a senior living community, and secure units in a medical facility for patients with dementia.
You can read the full bill below.
In testimony on Friday, Peggy Stephenson told lawmakers her mother, Inga, suffering from dementia, was abused and neglected in a care facility, which she only discovered because of cameras they'd installed in her mother's room.
"Mom would be dragged by [her] forearms quickly across the room at the employee's pace, not being respectful of her 92-year-old pace. That's where the bruising and tears on her forearms came from. In the shower, she was ushered onto a cold fiberglass seat and then the water was turned on and adjusted, maybe. We know it's cold, which is why mom screamed and fought," Stephenson said through tears. "She was abandoned in the common area where she was living and the caregivers, the two assigned caregivers weren't accounted for. She fell and wound up breaking her hip."
She also testified that her mother's wedding ring was stolen while she was getting in the shower.
She told lawmakers that she was retaliated against after reporting her concerns to the facility's manager.
"I had to remove cameras. They created a new policy. No cameras. It was a violation of the dressing room law," Stephenson said. "Mom needed total lockdown. It was $2,600 more a month."
WATCH: Stephenson family testifies in support of Assembly Bill 368
Under the proposed bill, state health agencies would be allowed to deny new license applications, or suspend or revoke existing licenses for facilities that fail to comply with the camera law. It also adds civil and criminal penalties for any person or facility violating the law.
Peggy's husband Michael is a retired military colonel. He elaborated on the need for better supervision and accountability.
"I know there are plenty of outstanding caregivers out there but I'm going to focus on the dark side of caregivers," Michael said. "Caregivers' qualifications, there's minimal education, minimal qualifications, minimal training and oh, by the way, they're minimum wage. They show up on a ward and all of a sudden, they're the king and queen of that ward because they determine when a patient eats, gets their underwear changed, when they can go to the bathroom."
Lawmakers also heard from 29-year-old Andre Collins, who has cerebral palsy, and his mother Jodi.
"He just typed in I love living on my own," Jodi said as she showed lawmakers the sentenced that Andre had typed out on his communication device. "I like cameras in my apartment."
However, when he wanted to have cameras installed in his apartment.....
"I was told we can't because he has 24-hour caregivers and it is a privacy violation," Jodi explained.
WATCH: Collins family testifies in support of Assembly Bill 368
Both families told lawmakers that cameras are just common sense to make sure their loved ones are seen, safe, and properly cared for.
"You can watch your dogs streamed all day in doggy daycare. You can watch your kids in school and know they're okay," Peggy questioned. "Why can't we watch our loved ones who live in assisted living facilities? We have to live with the guilt of subjecting them to these places."
Assemblyman Max Carter of Clark County is sponsoring the bill.
He plans on making some amendments after one of the committee members said she wants to ensure timely investigations when cameras reveal abuse and neglect, and to publicize violations so anyone researching a facility has access to that information.