IL has most MI in nursing homes

[cougarnurse]

What I have seen is that many of these people have other ailments that make them nursing home candidates: 03/19/2009 - Ill. has most mentally ill in nursing homes - STLtoday.com

Illinois ranks highest among the states in the number of mentally ill adults under age 65 living in nursing homes: 12,736 last year, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Since 1980, Illinois has shut down seven state-run mental hospitals, leaving only 1,480 public hospital beds for mental patients. Nursing homes took up the slack when the hospitals closed.

The bed shortage in Illinois is severe, according to the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va. The state needs 6,279 beds to meet minimum treatment standards, the group says.

The AP's analysis found that nearly 125,000 young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illness lived in U.S. nursing homes last year. That was a 41 percent increase from 2002, when nursing homes housed nearly 89,000 mentally ill people ages 22 to 64.

The situation has left traditional elderly nursing home patients housed beside younger, stronger mentally ill people -- and the results have sometimes been deadly.

One way to reduce the number of mentally ill people in nursing homes is to move those who can live more independently into their own apartments. Over the next five years, state officials hope to move nearly 700 mentally ill people out of nursing homes during a federal demonstration project called "Money Follows the Person."

Federal Medicaid money now going to nursing homes will pay for support services to help the mentally ill succeed in their own apartments, said Brenda Hampton, who oversees the program for the state Division of Mental Health.

[cougarnurse]

Also see this story: Mentally Ill a threat in nursing homes

[cougarnurse]

This is about VT: More young mentally ill adults in nursing homes | burlingtonfreepress.com | The Burlington Free Press

The number of young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illnesses living in Vermont nursing homes increased 36 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.

Nationally, the number of mentally ill people ages 22-64 living in nursing homes increased by 41 percent. In Vermont, the number of younger, mentally ill adults in nursing homes increased from 119 in 2002 to 162 in 2008. The state ranks 48th in the number of adults fitting that criteria and 28th in its percentage increase.

The total number of nursing home residents in the state dropped from 3,243 in 2002 to 2,957 in 2008.

The numbers were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and prepared exclusively for the AP by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

[TammySue]

we have a few nursing homes in this area that specialize in this area. it seems that the only safe way to do this is to separate out the mentally ill in nursing homes from the typical nursing home setting. the safety is such a concern, with the strength and violence that often come with the mentally ill who are in nursing homes. they have usually used up all other avenues, including state mental hospitals, and this is their final destination.