Sunday, October 18, 2009

Nursing home dangers: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demands reforms to protect seniors and the disabled from mentally ill felons

Chicago Tribune also provided a data base regarding the safety of individual nursing homes.  I will be posting the reports for individual nursing homes in Boone County.

Illinois relies on nursing homes to house mentally ill patients, including younger adults with criminal records who cycle into the facilities from jail cells, psychiatric wards and homeless shelters. Younger felons qualify for nursing homes if they have a mental illness or physical disability.

In a blistering letter to the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Madigan demanded beefed-up inspections and better data-keeping of criminal activity inside the homes. And she said the department must enlist the help of state police to immediately review the criminal history of every felon living in Illinois nursing homes.

Madigan's letter demanded that the health department perform a top-to-bottom audit of those assessment contracts. "The criminal history analysis and reports are untimely and incomplete and, as a result, are putting residents at risk," she wrote.

Read more details by clicking on the following:  Nursing home dangers: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demands reforms to protect seniors and the disabled from mentally ill felons -- chicagotribune.com

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