Japanese nursing home kept man in cage-report

TOKYO, Feb 20 (Reuters) 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 today.

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.

REUTERS MS PM1922