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. That has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson's case and others across the country illustrate.
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VIEWPOINTS: Nursing homes dumping grounds for mentally ill
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. That has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson's case and others across the country illustrate.
Full Article and Source:
VIEWPOINTS: Nursing homes dumping grounds for mentally ill
11 comments:
This story is writing on the wall and people need to pay attention to it.
Society generally knows most nursing homes are inadequate but yet when stories like this come out, society is stunned because we don't want to believe nursing homes are also dangerous.
But they are.
This is so scary. So many people trust nursing homes to provide care they think they are incapable of providing their loved ones.
They must know of this danger. Hopefully, this article will get people to ask questions at nursing homes about fellow patients and staff.
People are finally taking a look at nursing home staff and doing better about background checks.
But, we don't think about the other patients.
Perverts get old - where do they go? Nursing homes.
Murderers get old - where do they go? Nursing homes.
Question:
Where are "wards of the state" forced to reside at the directions their guardians / conservators?
Answer:
All of this "in the best interest of the Ward". After the Wards are physically removed from their residentces, their homes, they are forced to reside at a nursing home facility in the probate racket loop.
Conclusion:
WAKE UP AMERICA we must have a voice OR leave the USA before this happens to........YOU or someone you love!
This is the fate that awaits us all if we don't do something about elder abuse.
If Fed HHS is now rating nursing homes, how is this allowed to occur?
Let's face it, this is ageism at it's worst example.
Would anyone allow a mentally ill person to be in the same facility with...a child?
I don't think so.
But, hey, it's okay in the goold old USA to save money and dump the mental cases and old x-cons in nursing homes mingling with the vulnerable adults with the old folks isn't it?
This story is so sad, it makes me sick.
The mental case who did this deserves the same treatment. An eye for an eye.
I had an uncle who was in a nursing home. He was a former Vet who had witnessed combat first hand and never recovered from it.
One day he was walking down the aisle and a little - small and frail - lady came up and tapped him on the shoulder.
He immediately swung around and decked her.
He wasn't a violent man, but she unwittingly did the absolute wrong thing.
Luckily, she was just stunned. It could have be so much worse.
And I wonder if the lady's family was ever notified of the event...
Nursing homes are dumping grounds, period.
Everyone's worst fear is that he/she will wind up in a nursing home.
Everyone who winds up there, is unhappy and wants to go home.
Most people who work at nursing homes take the job because it's all he/she can get.
Most people who visit there, visit quickly.
And things aren't getting any better. This article is evidence of that.
My deepest sympathies to the family Ivory Jackson.
The last place a person wants to live is in a nursing home.
Now, with all of these unbalanced out of control residents mixed in with the frail residents is a recipe for disaster.
God help us all.
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