My mom is in assisted living and I have a suspicion that the staff, or perhaps a resident, is taking her money. I need something that won’t look out of place and isn’t easily disabled, maybe it plays possum when unplugged but has battery backup. Anyone have any advice?
Put in a non-hidden camera.
This. Go ahead and tell everyone that you are worried about your mother and would like to see her anytime and check on her for your own peace of mind. Post a clear, preferably large, sign up front that there’s an active camera in the room. But do not insist on it. That’ll tell you all you need to know about the staff very quickly.
For the camera, use a regular old wifi-enabled baby monitor (App-controlled for best results) and connect it to a mobile Internet router. These routers have internal logs - learn how to access them, then check them (remotely, after setting up security in them) at intervals for suspicious reboot events.
If she’s well enough to consent to this, have her consent. Then install the cameras in such a way that her privacy is not eroded. For example, camera A only sees the door into the room, camera B only sees the night stand, camera C only sees the wardrobe. That sort of thing. Then instruct her to always keep her valuables in a location where at least one camera can monitor.
No nursing home worth their money would and should allow this…
Why the hell not?
It does heavily impede the privacy of the client - it is massively intrusive as nursing care can be a very private matter for the patient, it does infringe on the privacy rights of the staff and opens up a whole lot of legal issues.
I don’t know the mental capacity of OP’s mother, but if she can consent to this, I don’t see a problem with what is essentially a patient deciding to film themselves in their own room. And if she’s not capable of consenting to this, I’d say that OP’s suggestion to install a hidden camera in her room is pretty unethical.
She consents, however she’s not mentally well enough to know she’s being robbed. Someone has been taking her cash and tried to use her debit card. The bank flags it, cancels her card, then she has to wait 2 weeks for a new card. Her bank is a credit union in another state, so she has no money until then. I have power of attorney as of 3 days ago
If the patient would be fully competent there would not be a question if the money was taken by staff.
And nursing home patients are a highly vulnerable population - they are sadly often easily pressured into consenting by relatives. Consenting to a camera is even one of the less nefarious things they do consent to…I have seen far worse.