ROCHESTER — Two staff members at a Rochester senior living facility were found to have "emotionally abused" two residents and violated their privacy rights, a state investigation concluded. The report, published Nov. 12, from the Minnesota Department of Health's Office of Health Facility Complaints substantiated a claim of maltreatment at Willows & Waters Senior Living in Rochester.
The facility itself was not found to be responsible in this event. ADVERTISEMENT According to the report, the two employees filmed two videos of assisted living residents and posted them on social media. In the first video, per the report, the first employee stood next to a resident, who was seated in a recliner.
The employee held a four-foot-long metal chain in her hands. As the employee leaned down to talk to the resident, she "then quickly wrapped the metal chain around his right forearm near his wrist." "Resident #1 stopped smiling as he looked down at the chain around his wrist attempting to take it off," the report continues.
In the second video reviewed by state investigators, the same employee appeared with a different resident, who was seated at a dining table and eating. The employee "wrapped the metal chain around resident #2’s left wrist then using the chain, pulled resident #2’s left arm above her head," per the report. The resident, who "appeared unhappy," kept trying to eat, and the employee lowered the resident's arm, "but kept the chain wrapped around resident #2’s left wr.