Abuse Allegations Shut Down Potomac Assisted-LIving Home (USA)

09/03/09

Sources say a Montgomery County (web | news) home for senior citizens was shut down because of disturbing allegations of abuse. Investigators say some residents were tied to their wheelchairs and had gags placed in their mouths.

Without the sign out front, it would be easy to drive past the house on Gainsborough Road in Potomac and never know it was an assisted living facility. Montgomery County police say the state shut it down.

Detectives and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began elder abuse investigations after they say a witness came forward and said something very wrong was happening behind closed doors.

"This was physical abuse that involved patients being inappropriately restrained in the facility," said Lt. Paul Starks of the Montgomery County Police Department.

Police say the most serious allegations involve an 88-year-old woman and an 83-year-old woman -- two of the home's eight elderly residents. According to published reports, a female Alzheimer's's disease patient had tape and a cloth rag tied over her mouth one or more times since April.

Abridged

SOURCE: WJLA

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