N.C. to study separating mentally ill, elderly in long-term care
Friday, September 29th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Responding to problems in the state’s adult-care homes, North Carolina health officials have announced a plan to house aggressive mentally ill patients in a facility separate from rest homes designed for senior citizens.
Plans for the new type of facility are being drafted, Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom announced Wednesday. The move comes after a series of high-profile cases involving adult-care residents who wandered away from their care centers. One resident died.
State rules allow the mentally ill to be placed in rest homes, but the practice has been criticized for years. Critics complain the rules endanger frail geriatric residents and place mentally ill people in facilities that lack trained staff to properly care for them.
Rest homes have been a convenient place to house mentally ill patients when they move out of large mental hospitals under a state mental health reform plan. (more…)
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