Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan called on state public health officials Wednesday to overhaul their approach to protecting seniors and disabled adults who live in nursing homes alongside mentally ill felons.
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.
Last week's Tribune series, Compromised Care, found government, law enforcement and the nursing home industry have failed to adequately manage the influx of younger, mentally ill offenders. The state's background checks, designed to identify dangerous residents so they can be properly monitored, often fell short by missing ex-convicts' violent crimes and downplaying their risks to others.
The Tribune series "exposed shocking and unconscionable gaps in (the public health department's) implementation of the law and a disregard for its role as chief regulator of Illinois' nursing homes," Madigan wrote in the letter to department director Damon T. Arnold.
Madigan's office has no direct authority to mandate changes in other state agencies. But her voice is crucial because as the state's top law enforcement official, she has investigated substandard nursing homes and pressed for the 2006 state law requiring criminal background screenings for all new admissions.
Full Article and Source:
Nursing Home Dangers: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan Demands Reform to Protect Seniors and Disabled From Mentally Ill Felons
Additional Information:
Nursing Home Safety Reports
5 comments:
I am very pleased to see another state taking on nursing home reform.
Florida was in the news just a week or so ago, now Illinois.
I hope the tidal wave continues to grow.
I am disgusted and outraged that these felons are still draining taxpayer money and worse they are placed in nursing facilities where they have opportunities to prey on the innocent residents of nursing homes.
NUTS! INSANITY!
We better find solutions fast because the numbers are growing - do the math - taxpayers are paying the way from cradle to grave for those not putting money into the system, instead they are sponges, soaking us taxpayers up for their benefit.
It is insane, Sue, and the fact that "everybody knows" but does nothing is a testiment that old folks just don't matter.
What a shame.
Shout louder, Madigan! And keep shouting!
It appears there is finally going to be some reform of nursing homes.
The reformists have been trying for years. Finally some good success, thanks to the media!
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