Patients handcuffed to beds and live in cages
Patients at a care facility for the aged and disabled here were handcuffed to beds and a man was even confined in a pet cage, it has been learned.
The Bruu Kurosu Yukaikan in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, has admitted to the Mainichi that workers had bound patients to beds with handcuffs or rope. The facility claims that one patient voluntarily stayed in a pet cage.
Currently 26 men and women — aged from their 50s to 80s — live in the facility. Most of the aged people suffer from dementia and others are handicapped. Four workers take turns looking after them. An Urayasu Municipal Government leaflet describes it as a home for the aged. But the facility has not been registered with the Chiba Prefectural Government, although care-facility operators are legally required to do so.
A former worker said that a man in his 30s who had trouble using a leg and speaking after a traffic accident was confined in a 150-centimeter tall cage with only a futon and a portable toilet sometime around November last year.
The man continued to stay there after workers scolded him when he tried to get out. The cage was locked during the night. This treatment continued until the former worker quit in January this year.
The ex-employee added that about half the patients were bound to beds with handcuffs or rope when workers made final nightly checks each day. Workers made the handcuffs themselves. When the former worker questioned the decision to use the handcuffs and confine the man in a cage, a fellow worker dismissed the treatment because the facility was not registered.
When the Mainichi asked a chief official at the facility about the abusive treatment, the official admitted that workers bound patients to beds, but explained that workers prepared the cage for the man because he often pulled other patients down from their beds. “He went into the cage on his own accord,” the official added.
The Urayasu Municipal and Chiba Prefectural governments investigated the facility earlier this month. Officials from the local governments will discuss the possibility of filing a complaint to law enforcers if they confirm abuse took place there.
An official from the Justice Ministry’s human rights bureau said that it also would take action if a complaint is filed.
(毎日インタラクティブ)
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