There's no guarantee that someone fired for abusing a senior in a care home can't get a job in another home.
While nurses have regulatory bodies that can pull their licences, there's nothing similar for residential or community care aides.
That's a problem, say families who reluctantly entrust their parents and grandparents to the care of the nursing homes.
"It horrifies me," said Sherri Webster, whose father lived at Summerland Senior's Village in 2006. That same year, there were three investigations into physical and emotional abuse of seniors.
"I find that really astonishing," she said. "I think that there needs to be some kind of follow-up."
Gertie Pool spent 17 years as a care aide, and she saw people who shouldn't be working with seniors get hired anyway.
"A senior citizens' home is the easiest place to abuse people," she told CTV News.
Some retirement homes do criminal background checks, but it's not always required by the health authorities. And in the cases at Summerland, no one was ever charged criminally.
In the end it is left up to the employer to research a prospective employee's past.
Pool and seniors like her say if they have to end up in a care home, they would like to be assured that the people caring for them are suitable for the job.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
