About Us

We are a volunteer, non-profit Christian organization with a mission to help install, upon request, perpetualSKYPE in vulnerable adults and childrens' bedrooms in nursing homes and other long term care facilities. We will also help In-Home Care cases when possible.

The purpose is to allow parents, family members, or guardians to communicate with loved ones and monitor caregiver service on a random basis.
             
We believe that Washington state DSHS/DDD has violated civil rights for thousands of clients for many years in nursing homes and other long term care situations by not allowing video monitoring of clients by family or guardians.

How it All Started-

After we provided proof of our daughter Lisa being non-sexually abused and neglected by the staff when we had monitored her bedroom  with SKYPE, DSHS/DDD ordered her caregiver provider to unplug her computer and required a staff member be present when we SKYPED Lisa in her private bedroom in her shared rental home. 

They quoted DDD Policy 5.15 as the legal reason for their decision. I explained that the quoted policy did NOT even  pertain to our situation and they were violating Lisa's Civil Rights. Then the battle was on.

At first, they were adamant about the legality of their actions- this went on for many emails and many days. 

But when I finally asked for the name of the DSHS/DDD department supervisor and/or the name of the attorney at the Attorney Generals Office who made this decision, then they conceded.

They admitted indirectly that they had in fact violated Lisa's civil rights. Here is the reply after numerous emails and many days:
    
"After further discussion with the Attorney General’ s Office, DDD has decided not to interfere with your decision to keep the SKYPE turned on on Lisa’ s computer.  We will no longer advise Provail (Lisa's caregiver provider) to turn the computer off when Lisa is not watching it."  (signed by a senior DDD staff supervisor.)

This is a precedence and gives everyone the same rights. No longer can caregiver providers in the State of Washington deny perpetualSKYPE to anyone BECAUSE of their contracts with DSHS/DDD. Obviously, such a requirement by the state was invalid because of it being an illegal requirement.

It is basically the same throughout the rest of the states. The issue is Civil Rights Violations- plain and simple. But each case must be carefully evaluated before installing computers with SKYPE. We will assist you in the evaluation.

WHAT IS perpetualSKYPE?

perpetualSKYPE involves using a remote controlled computer with a webcam. It allows a parent, a family member, or a guardian to remotely establish a video SKYPE contact for constant or random communication with loved ones, or to monitor caregiver service with or WITHOUT the facility being aware it is on.

It can also provide various entertainment or distance training depending on your loved ones abilities. It can provide an almost constant presence in your loved ones' bedroom- you can be there with them- be there for them, electronically!

And, you can use perpetualSKYPE for family gatherings or conference calls.

We will provide detailed instructions for setup and use. In our setup, we installed Teamviewer for our remote control and video SKYPE on an HP All-In-One computer. Both programs are free for personal use. Our home base setup is similar but uses an Acer One netbook

THE POWER OF perpetualSKYPE

We have personally witnessed the power of perpetualSKYPE! And we have seen the care for our daughter, Lisa, improve tremendously after using it to monitor her room. We have also been able to witness her doing many things that we didn't realize she was capable of.

Here is our story: 

Lisa has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal, spastic, and quadraplegic so a remote control program is necessary for our communication with her. She has a private bedroom and shares rent with 3 other vulnerable adults in a private residence.

Late one afternoon we somehow remotely got video SKYPE working in Lisa's private bedroom and saw that she was already in bed approximately 2 hours BEFORE her usual scheduled bedtime. (We wanted a remote control setup because Lisa is not capable of answering the call on her computer.)

The audio wasn't working so we phoned the house and asked the staff person if he would help us SKYPE Lisa and get the audio working. He said it would take a couple of minutes.

We then saw 2 staff members rush into Lisa's room and hurriedly take her from her bed and put her in her wheelchair. While one secured her in the chair the other one covered the camera with a towel or blanket.

This raised our suspicions about the care Lisa was getting. It also crushed us because one of the staff involved was someone we had trusted and had planned on letting him take Lisa on a vacation.

We continued to work on a procedure to remotely activate SKYPE and finally got it to work fairly reliably. We still have a lot to learn but it is good enough for basic monitoring.

During a 2 week monitoring period through perpetualSKYPE, we documented with snapshots and corresponding written descriptions of negligence and non-sexual abuse by several caregiver staff. This information was given to the Caregiver Provider and three of the staff were fired within days.

Several others were counciled and we are proud to say that they are now performing their job in an excellent manner. In some instances, it appears that these latter staff were simply in need of corrective training. BUT none of these improvements would have happened without perpetualSKYPE!

MAKE no mistake about it, this field of work requires a SPECIAL breed of workers. So when you monitor and see someone doing a good job, TELL them and the powers that be. (And, conversely, when you see someone NOT doing right, tell the proper higher up supervisors.)  

You can also show your appreciation by providing baked goods or even pizza for the staff during their weekly or monthly meetings.

FUNDING

We will attempt to raise funds for computers for those who cannot afford to buy them- actually 2 computers are needed- one at the facility or home and one at the guardian or parents' home.