Dementia patients found tied to chairs, lying in filth, with open sores

A specialist aged care home has been shut down after authorities found vulnerable residents repeatedly tied to chairs, sleeping on soiled mattresses, suffering open wounds and living in filthy conditions.

In one instance an elderly woman was kept in her room for six weeks at Greenslopes Supported Residential Service, which staff said was to keep her safe from another resident.

Warnings about the state of the home in Templestowe Lower, which catered for vulnerable residents including those with dementia, were first raised in March 2023, though it has taken regulators three years to investigate and close the service.

Following a series of inspections and improvement notices from June last year, Victoria’s Social Services Regulator revoked the 40-bed home’s registration on December 8, with a final shutdown deadline of March 5 to allow time to find residents a new home.

Administrators Ernst and Young moved into the home on March 5 after a legal bid by Greenslopes’ operators failed to delay the closure, and they had not yet found homes for up to 13 residents, who remain in the Templestowe Lower service. The administrators also changed the building’s locks after the operator, who also lives at the home, refused to move out.

Social Services Regulator Jonathan Kaplan said his office was committed to protecting residents from harm, abuse and neglect, and was working with other government agencies and the administrator to ensure Greenslopes’ remaining residents were safe, protected and can relocate to a place of their choosing.

“The safety, welfare and wellbeing of Greenslopes SRS residents is our paramount concern. We know it can be distressing for residents to have to move, and we have arranged dedicated support to make this change as easy as possible in the interests of the safety of all residents,” Kaplan said.

In a last-ditch effort to remain open, Greenslopes’ operators Sohal & Company sought a stay of its closure during a March 2 Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal hearing, before an upcoming appeal against the loss of its registration.

But after being presented with more than 2000 pages of evidence and hours of recordings outlining the conditions endured by residents, VCAT refused the stay, noting the operator’s “repeated non-compliance with its obligations as a provider creates a significant risk to the public”.

Authorised officer inspections between March 2025 and February 19, 2026, detailed in the tribunal alleged the operator had insufficient staff rosters, failed to manage a resident’s threatening behaviour, and confined a woman to her room for six weeks, as well as incidents including;

• Paramedics finding a resident, who had already had multiple hospital admissions, with an infected bed sore after her daughter found her with a soiled pad and no one available to change her dressing.
• A resident’s mattress was upside-down with timber on top that was heavily stained with bodily fluids.
• A man tied to a chair with a blue strap around his chest and under his arms during two separate visits.
• Officers having to assist a resident with advanced dementia who was calling for help from her room but had no call bell near her bed.
• A resident in their 90s left hunched over the side of a chair in the lounge during an entire three-hour visit, and another left slumped with her head on the table for long periods.
• A faeces-soiled incontinence pad left in a resident’s room, which also had an upright mattress that was soiled with a torn mattress protector.
• A communal toilet with no seat that was soiled with faecal matter with a slippery mat nearby.
• And an elderly resident observed with their incontinence aids falling down.

Greenslopes had also been issued compliance notices in July 2022 and November 2023 over issues including cleaning and maintenance concerns, incomplete medication records, and non-compliance with criminal history check requirements. It was again issued compliance notices in April 2024 over non-compliant rosters and “maintenance, odour and rubbish issues”.

But Greenslopes director Preet Kaur denied there were any issues at the home, telling The Age she had evidence proving the regulator’s allegations were false and that she would appeal the closures at VCAT and higher courts.

“Ninety-five to 96 per cent of [their] information is bullshit or manipulated,” Kaur said.

“I have evidence, otherwise I wouldn’t be fighting it. And I will take it to the Supreme Court as well.”

The Social Services Regulator replaced Victoria’s defunct Human Services Regulator in July 2024, and now oversees 480 services. Last year it undertook 184 compliance inspections at 77 service providers.

Having first raised issues about Greenslopes in March 2023, Mental Health Legal Centre chief executive Charlotte Jones said she was concerned it had taken years for the regulator to help residents to leave, calling for overhauls and far greater monitoring of the sector.

“We were extremely concerned about what was happening and particularly about the owner’s behaviour,” Jones said.

“I’m horrified. This is modern Melbourne. We highlighted this and issues like these in supported residential services before the disability royal commission over three years ago.

“There are people who go into these places every week who raise concerns. There are nurses, there are advocacy services, there are all kinds of people who walk through the doors of these SRSs and talk about the problems that they see and report these problems. And as far as they’re concerned, they don’t see any change.”

While he said he could not comment on concerns relating to an individual service, Victoria’s Public Advocate, Dan Stubbs, said the state’s Community Visitors consistently raise serious concerns about conditions in supported residential services.

Stubbs welcomed action taken by the regulator, but said stronger, formalised information sharing arrangements with Community Visitors were urgently needed, so issues can be escalated more quickly.

“These are not isolated problems – they are systemic and they go directly to whether people are safe and treated with dignity where they live,” he said.

“No one should be living with broken bathrooms, unsafe facilities or unhygienic conditions. When these basic issues are left unresolved for months, it sends a troubling message about how residents’ wellbeing is being prioritised – or not.”

Kaplan said his authorised officers have been actively involved with the provider of Greenslopes since the regulator began operations in July 2024, and had taken appropriate action in line with the risk for each issue uncovered.

“There has been a range of education, compliance and enforcement action aimed at lifting the standards and supporting better care for residents. Where prior enforcement action was taken, the Social Services Regulator followed up to ensure the provider returned to compliance,” he said.

“Despite this, Greenslopes SRS failed to maintain compliance. Further and more serious instances of non-compliance detected through 2025 resulted in the decision to revoke the registration of Greenslopes SRS.  The decision to revoke the registration of Greenslopes SRS had regard to the best interests and the safety, welfare and wellbeing of residents.”

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