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They need somewhere besides rest homes for the elderly, experts say
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

CHARLOTTE

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 place separate from rest homes designed for senior citizens.

Plans for the new type of care center 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 centers. One resident died.

The practice of placing the mentally ill in rest homes has long been criticized. Critics say that the rules endanger frail geriatric residents and place mentally ill people where staff cannot 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.

In the past two months, two residents have wandered away from the Unique Living home in Cleveland County. The first resident, who had dementia, was found dead in nearby woods. The second, who has schizophrenia, was found alive but hungry 100 miles away in Maggie Valley.

Hooker Odom has made finding a solution a priority, said Jackie Sheppard, the assistant Health and Human Services Secretary.

"Given the critical nature of this issue, and what we see day after day about people (wandering) and other issues, she decided it was too important not to take on," Sheppard said during a meeting of the N.C. Study Commission on Aging in Raleigh.

Sheppard said that the state health department has "cobbled together" the $600,000 expected to be the minimum needed for a long-range study on housing for mentally ill patients, including those who have a high potential for aggression.

Health-department officials also told commissioners that they have made progress toward improving screening of patients who are entering rest homes. (more…)

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