Nursing Home Banned Over Alleged Elder Abuse (Japan)

Okayama home for elderly to be banned over alleged abuse of seniors
Friday 18th April, 05:09 AM JST

The city government of Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, said Thursday it will rescind the license of Group Home Ring as a care-giving institution on April 30 on the grounds that it has abused seniors at the facility. It will be the first time in Japan for a nursing institution to be banned under the Nursing Care Insurance Law due primarily to abuse inflicted on residents, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Group Home Ring had under its care five female residents in their 70s to 90s, all of whom have lost 4.5 to 17.0 kilograms in weight since checking in. Three of them lost more than 10 kg and in one of the most acute cases, a woman’s weight dropped to 28 kg from 45 kg in 15 months, Tsuyama city officials said.

Yoji Shimada, a city official in charge of senior care matters, told the day’s news conference, ‘‘The group home residents were given scant amounts of food and became malnourished.’’

‘‘The home operator was aware that its charges’ health was suffering but just looked on,’’ Shimada said, implying dereliction of duty on the part of the home.In March, public inspectors found that the home was not giving medical care to underweight patients.Although the home operator said that it would give the patients sufficient care in consultation with their doctors, the inspectors believe no such change occurred.

The group home is denying any wrongdoing.

Among notable cases of abuse committed in the past, a nursing home in Kagoshima Prefecture was found in September 2006 to have had male and female residents take baths together.Also in the same month, about 20 residents of an unlicensed home for the aged in Okayama were found with unexplained bodily injuries.It emerged in February 2007 that a nursing institution in Chiba Prefecture had put their patients in a cage.It was learned in June last year that a female nurse had pried loose the toenails of four senile patients in a hospital of Fukuoka Prefecture.

Abridged
SOURCE: japanToday


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