Portland Rest Home Placed Under State Monitoring

A Portland rest home, where a schizophrenic resident who had been missing for more than 18 hours was later found dead in the Connecticut River in 2012, is undergoing 18 months of monitoring by the state Department of Public Health and has had to hire an independent consultant to improve its practices. Under a consent order released by DPH Tuesday, Luel Swanson, the administrator at Greystone Rest Home, also agreed to provide sufficient personnel to monitor its residents, report unusual occurrences to the state and enforce its policies on residents who don’t return from leaves. State records show that the 59-year-old resident had a troubled history, including trying in 2011 to thrust a piece of glass down her throat and gouge her eyes out. The woman also had hallucinations and heard voices, DPH records show. On Jan 26, 2012, the woman signed herself out to visit the local library and go to dinner and was expected to return at 6:30 p.m., records show.