Judge Orders For-Profit Illinois Nursing Homes to Stop Scaring Psychiatric Patients Out of Transferring to Community Housing
A federal judge is ordering for-profit assisted living facility operators in Illinois to stop holding meetings and circulating information sheets designed to scare psychiatric patients into staying at nursing homes instead of transferring to supportive community housing. US. District Judge William Hart’s ruling was made public today and stems from a proposed court settlement that offers supportive residential living situations to about 4,500 psychiatric residents who are now residing in assisted living facilities referred to as Institutions for Mental Diseases.
The nursing homes recently started giving out information sheets to IMD residents and their families recommending that they turn down the settlement, which they said intentionally did not provide enough specifics about the plan and was going to take away certain protections from the psychiatric patients that did opt to move into the new housing facilities.
Hart called the information sheets “misleading, while containing certain passages that were incendiary and inaccurate. He also told nursing operators that they could no longer interact with psychiatric residents without the consent of the attorneys who are representing the mentally ill patients and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Our Chicago nursing home neglect and abuse law firm has been monitoring this story, and we recently published a blog post about the issue. We cannot stress enough that assisted living facilities are supposed to serve the best interests of each patient. Failure to provide the proper care that a nursing home resident needs is nursing home neglect.
Because of their mental health issues, some psychiatric residents may very well be better served by moving into supportive community housing, while others may be getting the care that they need at an assisted living facility. Some residents may be too dangerous to house along with the general nursing home population, in which case an assisted living facility may be placing the safety of the other patients at risk by allowing a mentally ill resident to live there.
Judge: Nursing home operators misled psychiatric patients, ChicagoBreakingNews, July 28, 2010
ACLU Says For-Profit Illinois Nursing Homes Trying to Scare Psychiatric Patients so They Won’t Leave, ChicagoNursingHomeAbuseLawyerBlog, July 24, 2010
Settlement reached in Illinois lawsuit over mentally ill, Pantagraph.com, March 15, 2010
Related Web Resources:
ACLU of Illinois
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