Mentally Ill Do Not Belong In Nursing Homes
AP IMPACT: Mentally ill a threat in nursing homes
CHICAGO (AP) — Ivory Jackson had Alzheimer’s, but that wasn’t what killed him. At 77, he was smashed in the face with a clock radio as he lay in his nursing home bed.
Jackson’s roommate – a mentally ill man nearly 30 years younger – was arrested and charged with the killing. Police found him sitting next to the nurse’s station, blood on his hands, clothes and shoes. Inside their room, the ceiling was spattered with blood.
“Why didn’t they do what they needed to do to protect my dad?” wondered Jackson’s stepson, Russell Smith.
Over the past several years, nursing homes have become dumping grounds for young and middle-age people with mental illness, according to Associated Press interviews and an analysis of data from all 50 states. And that has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson’s case and others across the country illustrate.
-
Leave a Reply
"Mentally Ill Do Not Belong In Nursing Homes"
