AP Features, February 20th, 2007
Japanese authorities are investigating a home for elderly people and the disabled near Tokyo over allegations of abuse, a local official said Tuesday, amid reports that some residents were kept in cages and handcuffed to beds.
The case highlights the pressures that Japan's rapidly aging population has put on families caring for elderly parents and grandparents, and concerns over how to protect them from abuse.
Local police and Chiba prefecture (state) authorities began investigating a facility in the city of Urayasu earlier this month over suspected violations of a law designed to protect people aged 65 years or older from abuse, Chiba official Yutaka Yokoo said.
The probe was triggered after a former employee reported abuses at the home, Yokoo said. About two-thirds of the 26 patients are elders with dementia or other conditions requiring care and the remaining one-third appear to suffer from other mental disabilities, he added.
The unidentified employee told authorities that the facility, called Blue Cross Yukaikan, had been keeping one resident in a cage and another handcuffed to a bed, Yokoo said.
Photos that appeared to back up the man's accusations ran in the Mainichi newspaper on Tuesday.
Officials at the facility acknowledged to authorities that hand restraints had been used on one elderly resident who would become violent and drank bleach, Yokoo said. Other patients would also be restrained at times, such as when administering injections, he said.
Kyodo News agency also quoted an unidentified official from the home as admitting that a cage had been used, saying it was "like a fence for toddlers and the resident entered it willingly... We couldn't help it because the resident had a habit of pulling other residents off their beds."
However, authorities so far have not uncovered any evidence that a cage had been in use, Yokoo said.
Prefectural and city officials hope to compile reports on their findings as early as this week and then decide on what action, if any, will be necessary, Yokoo said.
He said it was premature to say if any criminal charges would be leveled against the operators of the facility should abuse be confirmed, though they would certainly be ordered to make changes to procedures if it was.
Telephone calls to Blue Cross Yukaikan rang unanswered.
The facility appears to be operated by a Tokyo-based company called Blue Cross Health Development Association, Yokoo said. Tokyo directory assistance had no listing under that name.
The Chiba case comes less than a year after a law took effect aimed at protecting elders in nursing facilities and at home.
The government did not begin keeping its own statistics of abuses until after the law went into effect and still does not have data on how many incidents have been reported at home or in care facilities, said Health Ministry official Makoto Nakaigawa.
A group of studies reviewed by the ministry in 2004 showed that 30 percent of the care facilities surveyed had reported incidents of abuse. Seniors over 75 were more likely to suffer abuse in their own homes compared to care facilities, the ministry added.
Japan's long average life expectancy has made caring for the elderly an increasingly important issue in recent years.
According to government estimates released in November, people 65 or older account for 20.7 percent of Japan's total population of about 127 million. By 2014, more than a quarter of the population is expected to be 65 or older, the government has said. By 2040, the figure will be more than 33 percent.
