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After allegations of abuse and maltreatment, state investigators intervened at a Georgia care center for Alzheimer's patients. Over 20 employees at the center including the owner, Donna Wright, have been arrested for multiple criminal charges. The raid this past Tuesday was the result of a three-month long investigation looking into the Alzheimer's Care of Commerce, located 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the allegations included physical abuse, emotional neglect and financial exploitation. After the search warrant granted the investigators the right to look for evidence, they found several cases of abuse, which included directly hitting the patients and throwing water on them. Other situations involved leaving dirty diapers on the seniors and restraining patients with bed sheets. On top of this level of abuse, the investigators discovered that the facility had hired care takes with a history of felony convictions, which included identity theft and voluntary manslaughter.

"Information obtained through the investigation indicated that patients were restrained with bed sheets and subjected to inhumane and undignified conditions to include 'double diapering,' which is a practice whereby multiple diapers were placed on the patients at once to keep the staff from changing soiled diapers as often," the investigators said, according to the Associated Press.

When the raid occurred, there were 27 patients at the facilities. These patients have since been relocated to other care facilities. The investigations started after an employee at the facility filed a complaint. Several complaints were filed as well by relatives.

Alzheimer's disease is a debilitating brain disorder that affects one's memory over time. Due to the circumstances of this type of dementia, the patients could not stand up for themselves when the abuse took place, unfortunately making them easy targets for abuse.