Mentally Ill Patients Are Dangers To Nursing Homes
The Georgia Injury Law Blog has posted an article that discusses an Associated Press report about the rising number of mentally ill patients inhabiting nursing homes.
Mentally ill residents can be several decades younger and much stronger than elderly nursing home patients. Also, some mentally ill patients can experience fits of rage that, in some cases, leave their frail elderly counterparts dead or severely injured, as in the case of Ivory Jackson.
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.
Jackson's roommate was 50 and had a history of aggression and "altered mental status," according to the state nursing home inspector's report. Solomon Owasanoye wandered the streets before he came to All Faith Pavilion, a Chicago nursing home, and he yelled, screamed and kicked doors after he got there.
On May 30, 2008, he allegedly picked up a clock radio, apparently while Jackson slept, and beat him into a coma. Exactly what set him off is unclear. Jackson died of his injuries less than a month later. Owasanoye pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, and after a psychiatric review was ruled unfit to stand trial. He now lives in a state mental hospital.
Around 125,000 young and middle-aged adults, with serious mental conditions, lived in nursing homes last year. That is a drastic increase from the 2002 number of 89,000. Alabama is one of the states that saw the steepest increase. Nursing home employees are often trained in dealing with an aggressive patient, yet they are generally unequipped for the care needed by the mentally ill.
