Families Remove Patients From Care Facility Amid Abuse Allegations
Relatives rushed to retrieve patients from the Boonsuk Home after allegations emerged that staff were keeping chains, handcuffs, and urine buckets hidden on the premises. Ministry officials entered the facility to investigate and began transferring some patients to hospitals for further care. One mother described taking her depressed son home barefoot after discovering his belongings missing and expressing shock at the alleged abuse.
On October 8, 2024, after the Region 4 Social Welfare Office coordinated for relatives to take patients out of the facility, officials from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security entered to inspect the premises and screen which patients needed to be transferred to Sri Thawee Hospital for further treatment. Initially, some patients were sent to various hospitals, and their belongings were loaded onto vehicles. While reporters waited outside, a person on the third floor facing the road opened a window and held up a handwritten sign on cardboard that read, 'Brother, please inform the department to come inspect—there are chains, handcuffs, and a urine bucket under the stairs near the entrance; he hid them there.' The reporter then notified the ministry officials arriving to inspect, who said they would check it out. Throughout the afternoon, relatives of residents arrived to take their loved ones home. One mother came to pick up her 30‑year‑old son, who suffers from depression and had been staying at the facility for about three years. She said she visited him every month because she never abandoned him, but seeing the news shocked her, wondering how such treatment could happen. She recalled signing a custody agreement when she admitted him, with a monthly fee of about 20,000 baht. The mother added that when her son first arrived she noticed his eyes were green, but he told her it was from a fight with another resident; she suspected abuse but thought it might be just a quarrel. Over the three years he had also suffered a scald from hot water, though no accident was reported. Her sister had also complained that visits had to be scheduled in advance and could not be spontaneous; during visits there was a reception area but no guards watching over them. As for daily life, the son rarely spoke much; whenever she visited she would bring food, he would eat a little then become sleepy and return to his room. After taking him home, the mother said she would walk him out barefoot because he had no shoes, then drive him home immediately. She felt relieved to have him back and said she would care for him herself and would not bring him back to the facility. That day he came out with only his medication, nothing else. When asked why he left barefoot, she said she had bought shoes for him but they were missing, and the clothes she had bought for him had also disappeared.
