More than any other state, Illinois has relied on nursing homes to house younger adults with serious mental illnesses, an Associated Press analysis found. Elderly residents have been victimized by stronger, younger residents living next door – or sometimes in the same room. A Chicago Tribune series of articles spurred Quinn to form the task force.<\/p>\n
The violence ranges from fist fights that leave bruises to rapes and murders. In May 2008, Chicago nursing home resident Ivory Jackson was beaten into a coma by his much younger roommate; Jackson later died.<\/p>\n
The assailant, after a psychiatric review, was ruled unfit to stand trial and now lives in a state mental hospital. In January 2009, a 69-year-old woman living in an Elgin nursing home was allegedly raped by a 21-year-old mentally ill resident.<\/p>\n
“The mix of vulnerable and potentially aggressive residents in close quarters is toxic, as the tragic reports of violence highlighted,” according to the report.<\/p>\n
The report blames the problems on the state’s “over-reliance on nursing homes” to house the mentally ill after closures of state mental institutions in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n
“Through a series of incremental decisions over the past several decades Illinois has inadvertently exposed vulnerable residents of nursing homes to potential violence,” the report states.<\/p>\n
The report repeatedly calls for expansion of community-based services and supportive housing for the mentally ill. Nursing homes caring for people with serious mental illness would be required to get special certification.<\/p>\n
“Too many residents with mental illness languish in nursing homes without appropriate therapy or intervention,” according to the report.<\/p>\n
The report is clear that people with mental illness aren’t assumed to be more violent than others and are often the victims of violence. But it states: “the relatively few mentally ill nursing home residents who exhibit violent behavior, most of them younger adults, have caused significant harm to other residents.”<\/p>\n
The report sets April 30 and June 30 deadlines for 11 workgroups charged with ironing out the details – including amounts of fees, fines and taxes.<\/p>\n
Among the recommendations in the 52-page report:<\/p>\n
-Increase the number of state regulators, long-term care ombudsmen, Illinois State Police staff and guardianship advocates.<\/p>\n
-Require hospitals to start criminal background checks on patients they plan to discharge to nursing homes.<\/p>\n
-Improve training for the private vendors who now screen potential nursing home residents.<\/p>\n
-Allow the Department of Public Health to yank the licenses of nursing homes that repeatedly violate regulations, without having to prove residents suffered harm.<\/p>\n
-Make it tougher for nursing home owners with troubled facilities to buy and operate other homes.<\/p>\n
-Raise minimum staffing requirements in a way consistent with a 2001 federal study. Experts have said that would raise the state’s staffing minimums by 42 percent to 64 percent.<\/p>\n
-Give whistle-blower protection to nursing home staff who report alleged misconduct.<\/p>\n
The report, to be posted Friday on the task force Web site, comes after the task force gathered information during seven public meetings.<\/p>\n
“We’re not done,” Gelder said. “This is a midway point and certainly not an end.”<\/p>\n
On the Web: <\/strong>illinois.gov\/nursinghomesafety<\/a><\/p>\n Read the original article from WBBM News Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n CHICAGO (AP) — A sweeping overhaul of the state’s long-term care system is needed to address violence stemming from a “toxic” mix of frail elderly and younger mentally ill residents in Illinois nursing homes, a government task force said Friday. Gov. Pat Quinn’s task force on nursing home safety released its final report with 37 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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