To provide complete care for its residents, Chaseley Trust — a venerable British nursing facility housed in an ornate seaside mansion — offers amenities such as a movie theater, a gymnasium and a pool table. It also, from time to time, invites prostitutes and strippers to provide their services to residents.

"People have needs," said manager Helena Barrow, as quoted in The Sun. "We are there to help. We respect our residents as individuals so that's why we help this to happen. If we refused, we would not be delivering a holistic level of care."

The revelation has ignited a nationwide debate over the rights of the disabled, and over the role of sex in assisted living facilities. The local East Sussex County Council has started an investigation into the home's use of strippers and prostitutes, according to The Inquisitr.

"This has the potential to place vulnerable East Sussex residents at risk of exploitation and abuse," a council spokesman told The Inquisitr.

Nonetheless, Barrow claims the practice has the support of Chaseley's staff, who said they might otherwise be sexually harassed by the residents — some of whom are as young as 18 years and have neurological conditions.

"If you have a resident who is groping staff, one way of resolving that problem is to get a sex worker in who is trained to deal with that situation," Barrow told The Sun. "Most of the time, these are people who feel frustrated by a primeval need they cannot fulfill."

Sex in assisted living facilities, especially those with older residents, has long been a taboo subject, though attitudes are becoming more enlightened. As more people are living longer, healthier lives, sexuality among seniors is now largely understood as an important part of a happy, complete life.

Privacy is a particular issue among sexually active nursing-home residents, and those at Chaseley were no exception. The staff managed those concerns by placing a bright red sock on the door handle of a resident's room as a kind of "Do Not Disturb" signal when that resident wanted some privacy, the Daily Mail reports.

One stripper who visited Chaseley — a performer who goes by the name Solitaire — has also performed before the U.K. Royal Society of Medicine at a conference on sex and disability, where she provided a lap dance to a deaf and blind man, according to the Daily Mail.

Barrow was put in touch with Solitaire through the services of the TLC Trust, an organization that campaigns for the sexual rights of disabled men and women, the Daily Mail reports.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.