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Japanese Nursing Home Kept Man in Cage-Report
Reuters
Japan
February 20, 2007
A Japanese nursing home is being investigated over a claim that staff
tied residents to their beds and kept a disabled man in a cage,
officials said on Tuesday.
The residents, many suffering from dementia, were regularly tied to
their beds with ropes and handcuffs by caregivers, the Mainichi
newspaper said in the latest case of abuse towards the elderly in a
rapidly greying society.
Quoting a former employee at the nursing home, the paper said a disabled
man in his 30s was locked in a cage designed for pets and kept there for
at least three months with a blanket and a toilet inside.
The man was physically and mentally impaired as a result a traffic
accident, it said.
The nursing home, where 26 people live, was unlicensed, and authorities
were unaware of the conditions until being told by the former employee
who left it in January, the paper said.
A staff member at the nursing home, located in Urayasu city, east of
Tokyo, told reporters that a cage had been used but said she did not see
it as abuse.
"The resident had a habit of pulling other residents off their beds,"
she said.
"The purpose was to keep other residents out of danger. If this is
called abuse, then what else can we to do?" she said.
City officials said they were investigating the report. They said they
had searched the nursing home recently, and NHK public television said
they had not spotted a cage but had found that one person was tied to a
bed.
The Mainichi quoted the nursing home manager as saying residents were
physically restrained to prevent them from falling out of bed, and it
was with the consent of their families.
Such unlicensed nursing homes have been on the increase as the number of
elderly grow, and not all can afford to stay in more expensive
authorised facilities.
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