North Topeka resident Tony Martinez says he couldn't believe what he saw out his front door just a few weeks ago: a mental health patient wandering the neighborhood.

Now, he wants answers.

Two weeks ago, Martinez saw what he first thought was an intoxicated woman making her way toward his home.

"The more and more I looked at her, I could tell she was sick, she was dragging herself to here and once she got here, she pretty much rolled down this hill," Martinez said at his home at 1201 N. Monroe.

Martinez called 911 and just as first responders reached the scene, a representative from Brighton Place arrived.

"Picking her up, not being able to hold her weight, dropping her on the ground, repositioning herself to pick her up off the ground, dropping her again," Martinez says of the representative, "she looked at me and said, 'don't argue with me, I know how to handle my patients,' why are your patients four blocks away unattended when they obviously need help?"

A Brighton Place administrator refused to comment on camera and did not want us to use her name.

She told 13 News it's a confidential situation and she said she was the Brighton employee who went to find the woman.

She described her as a psychiatric patient who wandered from Brighton Place.

She told us the woman suffered no injuries and is now back at Brighton Place.

Officials at the Department on Aging told us it's important for families to visit a facility before a loved one becomes a resident.

"Take a visit to the nursing home at different times of day, observe the staff, how are they interacting with the residents, are there enough of them there?" says Vera VanBruggen of the Kansas Department on Aging.

"I've never seen a health care person treat anyone like that," Martinez says, "that's somebody's loved one, God forbid, that would've been my mom."

Brighton Place has not had any reports of abuse in the past five years; however they have received complaints on fire code compliance, patient privacy and food sanitation issues.

If you'd like to get information on nursing homes before you or your loved ones become residents, check www.medicare.gov.

If you suspect an abuse situation, the Department on Aging has a hotline: 1-800-842-0078

You can also pick up a Kansas Guide to Information and In-Home Services at the Department on Aging in Topeka: 503 S. Kansas Ave.